Axon (company)

Axon Enterprise, Inc.
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: AAXN
S&P 600 Component
Founded 1991
Headquarters Scottsdale, Arizona
Key people
 Patrick W. Smith, co-founder, CEO. Thomas P. Smith, co-founder. Doug Klint, president and General Counsel.
Products Body worn cameras, digital evidence management, Electroshock weapons
Revenue Increase $343.8 million USD (2017)
Number of employees
 699 (2016)
Website www.axon.com

Axon (formerly TASER International) is a Scottsdale, Arizona-based company which develops technology and weapons products for law enforcement and civilians.

Its flagship product and former namesake is Taser, a line of electroshock weapons. The company has since diversified into technology products for law enforcement, including a line of body cameras and Evidence.com, a cloud-based digital evidence platform. As of 2017, body cameras and associated services comprise a quarter of Axon's overall business.[1]

History

In 1969, NASA researcher Jack Cover began to develop a non-lethal electric weapon to help police officers control suspects, as an alternative to firearms.[2] By 1974, Cover had completed the device, which he named the "Tom Swift Electric Rifle" (TSER), referencing the novel Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle. To make it easier to pronounce as a word, Cover later added an "A" to the acronym to form "TASER".[3] The Taser Public Defender used gunpowder as its propellant, which led the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to classify it as a firearm in 1976.[4][5] This limited sales and Cover's company, Taser Systems Inc., collapsed.[6]

In 1991, Rick and Tom Smith formed AIR TASER, Inc. to, with Cover, design a version of the device that would use compressed nitrogen instead of gunpowder as a propellant.[7] The pursuit began after two of Rick's former high school acquaintances had been murdered in a road rage incident in Scottsdale.[6][8][7] During development, the company faced competition from another vendor, Tasertron, whose product had become associated with its alleged ineffectiveness during the police confrontation of Rodney King.[9]

After nearly going bankrupt marketing other products such as an electroshock-based anti-theft system for automobiles known as "Auto Taser",[10] the company, later renamed TASER International, introduced its TASER M26 weapon in 1999.[9] With a $6.8 million deficit in 2001, TASER International took steps to improve sales by offering to pay police officers to train others on how to use their products; this marketing technique helped improve the company's market share, reaching $24.5 million in net sales by 2003, and nearly $68 million in 2004.[9] In May 2001, they filed for an initial public offering and began trading on NASDAQ under the stock symbol TASR.

The company also took significant action against competitors, having acquired the aforementioned Tasertron, and aggressively defending its patents. Patent lawsuits by TASER International led to the shutdown of both Stinger Systems and its successor company, Karbon Arms; both companies were founded by Robert Gruder. Despite the controversies that have centered around the products (including deaths attributed to taser usage), the company maintained its dominant market position.[11]

Shift towards bodycams

In 2005, TASER International began to offer an accessory for its taser products, TASER Cam, which adds a grip-mounted camera that is activated after the safety is disengaged, to its battery pack. By October 2010, at least 45,000 TASER Cams had been sold.[12][13]

In 2008, the company unveiled its first body camera, the Axon Pro. It was designed to be head-mounted, and upload footage for online storage on a web-based service known as Evidence.com. TASER's CEO Rick Smith explained that the products were designed to "help provide revolutionary digital evidence collection, storage and retrieval for law enforcement".[14] The company piloted Axon Pro in various small cities and towns.[14] In 2009, after prosecutor Daniel Shue exonerated Fort Smith police officer Brandon Davis based on footage from an Axon Pro camera, TASER's marketing began to incorporate testimonials by both parties into marketing for the Axon line.[14]

Especially in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting, the company's body camera business saw significant growth. Smith argued that the company was "not just about weapons, but about providing transparency and solving related data problems."[10] In April 2013, the Rialto Police Department released the results of a 12-month study on the impact of on-officer video using Axon Flex cameras. The study found an 88% drop in complaints filed against officers and nearly a 60% reduction in officer use-of-force incidents.[15]

TASER opened an office in Seattle in 2013,[16] and an international office in Amsterdam, Netherlands in May 2014.[17] In June 2015, the company announced the formation of a new Seattle-based division known as Axon, which would encompass the company's technology businesses, including body cameras, digital evidence management, and analytics. Rick Smith explained that the branch was inspired by Microsoft's use of the Xbox brand to branch into entertainment businesses, stating that "Axon was the name that we used for selling cameras historically, but we realized that brand had the room to grow and encompass all of our connected technologies." The Taser brand would still be used for the company's weapons products.[18][19]

On April 5, 2017, TASER announced that it had rebranded as Axon to reflect its expanded business. The company also announced an intent to offer free one-year trials of its body camera products and Evidence.com services to U.S. law enforcement agencies. While the Taser product line still contributes to a significant portion of its revenue, the company's technologies business had seen major gains.[20] As of 2017, they comprised a quarter of the company's business, while Axon cameras had a market share of 85% among police departments in the United States' major cities.[1] The rebranding was also intended to help distance the company from the negative stigma surrounding the Taser brand, with Smith acknowledging that they were "a bit of a distraction" when recruiting employees for its technology business.[1]

Hardware

Taser

Law enforcement models

There are two law enforcement models currently available:

  • Taser X26P[21][22]: An all-digital, single-shot electrical weapon for law enforcement personnel.
  • Taser X2[23][24]: An all-digital, two-shot capacity electrical weapon for law enforcement personnel.

Consumer models

Taser currently has three self-defense weapons for sale. They are Taser Pulse[25] for $399.99, Taser Strikelight[26] for $129.99 and Taser Bolt[27] for $399.99.

Body cameras

Axon Pro

Taser's original body-worn camera, the Axon Pro, was introduced in 2009.[10] The camera consists of three components, a head-mounted camera, a controller, and a monitor to review video recordings.[28]

Second-generation models

The second generation of Axon body cameras were simpler in form and function than the Axon Pro, removing the bulky monitor in favor of pairing with mobile phones. Many of the features introduced in these cameras,[29] such as the pre-event buffer, a method of capturing video from before the record button was pressed, have become common requirements in body-worn camera requests for proposal. The Axon Flex and Body only record video in standard definition (SD).

  • Axon Flex: The Axon Flex, a point-of-view camera, was released in 2012. The Flex camera system consists of a camera attached to an external battery pack / controller. In contrast to the Axon Pro, the Axon Flex does not have a screen to play back video. Instead, Taser offers a mobile application (Axon View) that connects to the camera using Bluetooth. Like the previous model, Axon Flex videos are stored in Evidence.com, Taser's cloud-hosted evidence management system. The camera features multiple mounting options, including a mount for Oakley, Inc.'s Flak Jacket® eyewear, in addition to collar, epaulette, ball cap, and helmet mounts.[30]
  • Axon Body: In 2013, Taser released the Axon Body, a single-unit camera similar in function to the Axon Flex. It features a wider field-of-view than the Flex, and also has simpler mounting options than the two-piece Flex. Although simpler, the body-mounted camera will not track what the officer is looking at as accurately as one mounted on the head.

Third-generation models (currently for sale)

  • Axon Body 2[31][32]: Redesigned and rebuilt on an Ambarella system-on-chip (SoC) video chip, the Axon Body 2 camera features full high-definition (HD) video, wireless activation, and other improvements over the original Body.
  • Axon Flex 2[33]: The Axon Flex 2, announced October 11, 2016, is an upcoming point-of-view camera slated to begin shipments in December 2016.[34] Like its predecessor, the Flex 2 consists of a camera attached to an external battery pack / controller. The new camera will feature a wider field of view (120 degrees vs. the Flex's 75 degrees), HD video, and other improvements over the original model.

Other cameras

In addition to body-worn cameras, Axon also offers interview room and in-car video systems, known as Axon Interview and Axon Fleet respectively. These systems, like the body cameras, integrate with the Evidence.com service.[35][36]

Software

Evidence.com

Evidence.com is a cloud-based digital evidence management system that allows police departments to manage, review, and share digital evidence, particularly video evidence captured with Axon-branded cameras.[10] It includes an automated redaction tool, audit trails for chain of custody purposes, and functionality to share evidence with prosecutors and others.[37] A free version is offered specifically for prosecutors to receive and manage incoming digital evidence.[37]

Evidence Sync

Evidence Sync is a desktop application that allows law enforcement officers to review and upload evidence from hardware devices and local files. It is also used to upload logs from Taser weapons to Evidence.com. Although primarily intended to work with Evidence.com, it can also be used in offline mode to directly access files, if the agency prefers.

Axon mobile apps

Two mobile apps integrate with the Axon cameras and Evidence.com. Axon View can be paired with an Axon body camera to review, tag, and stream videos from the camera.[38] Axon Capture can be used to capture audio, photo, and video evidence and upload it to Evidence.com using an officer's mobile phone.[39]

Axon Signal

Axon Signal is a range of products that are designed to automatically trigger recordings on Axon cameras in response to certain events, such as Signal Vehicle (which can trigger after the opening of doors or activation of sirens), Signal Performance Power Magazine (a successor to the TASER Cam accessory that triggers recordings when an Taser is armed), and Signal Sidearm (a sensor for handgun holsters which triggers recording when the gun is removed).[40]

Controversies

The company has noted that it has lost two product liability lawsuits:

This lawsuit represents the fifty-ninth (59th) wrongful death or injury lawsuit that has been dismissed or judgment entered in favor of TASER International. This number includes a small number of police officer training injury lawsuits that were settled and dismissed in cases where the settlement economics to TASER International were significantly less than the cost of litigation. One of these cases is that on Feb. 15, 2006, one officer Officer accidentally discharged TASER device on his daughter.[41] TASER International has lost two product liability lawsuits.[42]

However, on June 6, 2008, the company lost its first product-liability suit.[43] The damages were reduced in the Court of Appeals in 2011.[44] TASER lost its second product liability suit [45] In late January 2008, the public safety committee of the 39th Canadian Parliament House of Commons of Canada launched an investigation into their use, after the death of Robert Dziekanski.[46] The coroner concluded that the death of Robert Dziekanski was a homicide, confirming that the Taser was the cause of death, and has the capacity to kill.[47] The British Columbia government's Braidwood Inquiry is also currently underway.

In 2008, CBC News found that TASER X26 models manufactured before 2005 had a faulty fail-safe system.[48]

In 2015, it was discovered that several TASER International employees, without mentioning their employment status, had left negative reviews on Amazon.com and iTunes Store for Killing Them Safely, a documentary film by Nick Berardini which is critical of the company. The film documents and investigates the major incidents that resulted from taser usage.[49][50][51]

In January 2016, TASER International was sued by Digital Ally for infringing its two U.S. patents on the automatic activation of law enforcement body cameras. TASER International considered the suit to be "frivolous and egregious".[52]

The Evidence.com terms of use gives the company a "non-exclusive, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable, worldwide license" to use photos and videos uploaded by users. According to criminal defense lawyer, the terms of use go against the privacy of juveniles under Californian law.[53]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Reilly, Ryan J.; Wing, Nick (April 5, 2017). "The Company Formerly Known As Taser Goes All In On Police Body Cameras". The Huffington Post. AOL. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  2. ↑ Langton, Jerry (December 1, 2007). "The dark lure of `pain compliance'". Toronto Star. Retrieved December 1, 2007.
  3. ↑ Purpura, Philip P. (1996). Criminal justice : an introduction. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-7506-9630-2.
  4. ↑ Talvi, Silja J. A. (November 13, 2006). "Stunning Revelations". In These Times. Retrieved December 17, 2006.
  5. ↑ "Jurisdiction over the Taser Public Defender (#236)" (PDF). U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. March 22, 1976. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 10, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  6. 1 2 Woo, Elaine (February 13, 2009). "Jack Cover dies at 88; scientist invented the Taser stun gun". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Jack Cover, 88, Physicist Who Invented the Taser Stun Gun, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Police History: How a NASA scientist invented the TASER". PoliceOne. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  9. 1 2 3 "One Company Supplies Tasers to Virtually Every Police Department in the U.S." CityLab. The Atlantic. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Taser International Dominates the Police Body Camera Market". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Why Taser's only rival gave up electroshock for lemonade". The Verge. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Police buying Taser Cams for stun gun accountability". USA Today. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Conn. ACLU Wants Police To Use Taser Cameras". WSHU. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  14. 1 2 3 "How Police Body Cameras Were Designed to Get Cops Off the Hook". Gizmodo. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  15. ↑ Stross, Randall. "Wearing a Badge, and a Video Camera". New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Taser opening Seattle software development office - Phoenix Business Journal". Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Press Releases - TASER International Inc". investor.taser.com. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  18. ↑ "TASER International to split brands, announces Axon division". PoliceOne. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Photos: Inside the spaceship-themed Seattle office of police body camera-maker Axon". GeekWire. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Taser is being renamed and offering US police a free trial of body cameras". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  21. ↑ Official Taser Website, Taser X26P Professional Series for civilians
  22. ↑ Official Taser Website, Taser X26P for law enforcement
  23. ↑ Official Taser Website, Taser X2 Professional Series for civilians
  24. ↑ Official Taser Website, Taser X2 for law enforcement
  25. ↑ Official Taser Website, Taser Pulse for self-defense
  26. ↑ Official Taser Website, Taser Strikelight for self-defense
  27. ↑ Official Taser Website, Taser Bolt for self-defense
  28. ↑ "Taser Axon, An On-Officer Head Camera, Wants To Make Everyone A Little More Liable". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  29. ↑ Stross, Randall (April 6, 2013). "Wearable Video Cameras, for Police Officers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  30. ↑ "TASER Introduces Breakthrough AXON Flex Video System". TASER Investor Relations. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  31. ↑ Official Taser Website, Axon Body 2 for law enforcement
  32. ↑ Official Taser Website, Axon Body 2 for civilians
  33. ↑ Official Taser Website, Axon Flex 2 for law enforcement
  34. ↑ "Axon Flex 2 HD Camera Brings Breakthrough Flexibility & Durability to Point-of-View Cams". Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  35. ↑ "TASER announces new solution for managing interview room videos in the cloud". PoliceOne. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  36. ↑ Wyllie, Doug. "TASER's Axon Fleet brings affordable in-car video solution to police". PoliceOne. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  37. 1 2 Weise, Karen (July 12, 2016). "Taser Thinks a Camera on Every Cop Makes Everyone Safer". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  38. ↑ "Smile, you're on camera". The Garden Island. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  39. ↑ "Taser unveils new wearable police cameras, starting with BART". VentureBeat. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  40. ↑ "New holster forces all nearby body cams to start recording when gun is pulled". Ars Technica. Conde Nast. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  41. ↑ "ELECTRONIC CONTROL DEVICE LEGAL OUTLINE" (PDF).
  42. ↑ TASER Granted Summary Judgment Dismissing Product Liability Lawsuit, TASER International, Inc. press release, October 9, 2007.
  43. ↑ "Taser Loses 1st Product-Liability Suit; Jury Awards $6 Million". Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  44. ↑ Appeals Court Significantly Reduces Award in Heston Lawsuit Against TASER
  45. ↑ http://investor.taser.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=129937&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1677761&highlight=%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D Court Grants TASER's Motion to Reduce Turner Jury Verdict From $10M to $4.3M
  46. ↑ "Commons committee probes Taser use by police". CTVNews. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  47. ↑ "Robert Dziekanski Taser Death A Homicide: Coroner (VIDEO)". The Huffington Post. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  48. ↑ "Amnesty urges moratorium on Taser use after CBC/Radio-Canada probe". December 5, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  49. ↑ Fox-Brewster, Thomas (December 10, 2015), Taser Employees Hit iTunes To 'Troll' Documentary That Probes Suspect Killings, Forbes, retrieved December 11, 2015
  50. ↑ Mills, Chris (December 10, 2015), "Taser Employees Appear to Troll Anti-Taser Documentary With Fake Reviews", Gizmodo, retrieved December 11, 2015
  51. ↑ Swaine, Jon (December 11, 2015), "Taser staff appear to post negative reviews for film critical of stun guns", The Guardian, retrieved December 11, 2015
  52. ↑ "Is This the Lawsuit That Kills TASER International?". Fool.com. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  53. ↑ Taser/Axon Separating Defense Lawyers From Body Camera Footage With License Agreements - Tim Cushing, Techdirt, 8 May 2017

References

  • Anglen, Robert. "Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun." The Arizona Republic. May 21, 2005.
  • Johnson, Kevin. "Taser contributes to police families." USA Today. April 24, 2005.
  • Stross, Randall. "Wearing a Badge, and a Video Camera." New York Times. April 6, 2013.
  • "Taser research marred by conflicts." Vermont Huardian. May 23, 2005.
  • Frosch, Dan. "Ex-Albuquerque Police Chief Accused of Violating Ethics Laws in Auditor’s Report" "The Wall Street Journal". April 30, 2015.
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