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Fargo’s new interim police chief said the department needs to continue embracing new technology, despite the ongoing controversy over errors made during a recent investigation that leaned on artificial intelligence facial recognition. 

Travis Stefonowicz has worked for the Fargo Police Department since 2002 and was most recently assistant chief of police. His appointment as interim chief was unanimously approved by the city commission Monday. 

He's taking over as the department is in the midst of controversy for 

using artificial intelligence to investigate and arrest a woman last year for a crime in Fargo

. Angela Lipps was held in jail for more than five months until her bank records indicated she was in Tennessee during the crime. Her charges were dropped, and she was released in December. 

Stefonowicz said, as with any technology, there’s a learning curve to using AI. 

“There's a lot of technology being thrown at us, and we recognize we have to embrace it, or we are going to fall too far behind, and we will never be able to bridge that gap,” he said. 

He said adhering to best practices is important, and he wants the department to undergo training on how to best use AI, but it is difficult to secure funding. 

“Being a City of Fargo employee and a government service, cost is always a factor, and we want to do that right by our community,” Stefonowicz said. 

He’s taking over for Chief Dave Zibolski, who earlier this month 

 for “errors” made during the investigation and the "adverse effect that this has had on trust in the community.”

“Apologizing is the appropriate action to take,” Stefonowicz said. “There's a lot of things here for us to learn, and that's the important part, is understanding — whether it's technology and-or the legal process itself — we want to make sure that we have a good understanding and we can share our success and our failures with the community and just be transparent through that process.”

Stefonowicz said because the investigation is ongoing, he couldn’t detail exactly what led to the errors, but he said the department will “be able to share with everybody the lessons learned when this is all over because there are certainly lessons to be learned in all of this.”

He added that he doesn’t plan to make any major changes to the department during his temporary tenure as interim chief, but he does plan to apply for the permanent position. 

said at the most recent commission meeting

 that they plan to delay the process of picking a permanent chief because new city leaders will be elected in June. 

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Harshawn Ratanpal

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Travis Stefonowicz is taking over as the department is in the midst of controversy for using artificial intelligence to investigate and arrest a woman last year for a crime in Fargo.

Fargo’s interim police chief on artificial intelligence: ‘We have to embrace it’

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