Monona leaders urge caution on municipal AI use; departments restrict patient‑care AI
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Summary
IT and public‑safety leaders told council the city has no broad AI subscriptions and will proceed cautiously; fire and police chiefs said some vendor AI features (email scanning, translation, transcription) are used but narrative generation for patient records is disabled pending policy work.
City IT and public‑safety staff asked the Committee of the Whole on Thursday to limit municipal AI adoption until policies and technical safeguards are in place.
Leah, Monona's IT director, said the city has not broadly licensed AI tools and cautioned against placing city data into publicly available AI services: "we really don't want departments to be putting in city information into publicly available software." Leah recommended policy work and private‑cloud options before adopting AI for core operations.
Jaren, the city's IT consultant with Lantec, said one contracted security service (Barracuda) uses AI to scan email links and cross‑check databases; that constrained usage is already in place. Chief Jerry Friar said the EMS patient‑care reporting (PCR) software includes an "AI assist" that can generate narratives, but that feature has been turned off. "That is a hard line stance ... there's there's no AI use for patient care narratives," Friar said, citing CMS and evidentiary concerns.
Police Chief Cheney told the council his department restricts use of any AI technology not specifically authorized by the chief and requires verification if officers use AI for research. Cheney also noted Axon body‑camera vendors increasingly offer AI features such as translation and transcription that raise legal and evidentiary questions; department policy currently permits only approved uses.
Council members and staff said they will continue to gather Lexipol and peer‑municipality policy templates and expect fire and police AI policy work to come before public safety committees early next year.
Next steps: IT will map possible municipal AI use cases, identify required technical protections (private cloud, open‑records handling), and present recommended policy language to the council and public safety committees.
