Taser changing its name, will focus on body cameras
Taser International, the company behind ubiquitous shock devices carried by law enforcement officers, is changing its name as part of a shift toward focusing on body cameras worn by police.
To underscore that change, Taser said it was taking on a new corporate name — Axon Enterprise — drawn from the Axon cameras the company produces, rather than the controversial electric devices, which can deliver a painful shock to a small area or temporarily incapacitate someone.
As part of Wednesday’s announcement, the company said it planned to try to equip every police officer in the United States with a body camera.
“We believe these cameras are more than just tools to protect communities and the officers who serve them,” Rick Smith, the company’s chief executive and founder, said in a statement. “They also hold the potential to change police work as we know it, by seamlessly collecting an impartial record and reducing the need for endless paperwork.”
In a trial offer, Taser will give every sworn officer a free camera along with online data storage, training and support for a year. After that trial period, the police would either send back the cameras or buy them.
The company still plans to sell Tasers, though, which Smith called “one of our flagship products.” According to the company, these devices are used by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies in more than 100 countries — the vast majority of them departments in the United States. They claim they have saved more than 180,000 people from death or serious injury.
The devices have also long been controversial. Smith, the company’s chief executive, told the Huffington Post that the Taser name “can be a little polarizing.”
In a 2015 investigation, The Washington Post found that about one person per week died that year in incidents where Tasers were used. While a link between the Tasers and those deaths was not clear, Tasers were mentioned in at least a dozen cases as one factor on the autopsy reports or cause of death.
Tasers work in two ways. In “probe mode,” barbs are shot into a person’s body, delivering a current that locks up the muscles and can incapacitate someone. They can also be used in “drive stun” mode, which involves pressing the device against a person and does not incapacitate them but causes pain that is intended to force compliance.
Research has shown that when used correctly, these devices are generally safe, but police experts and company product warnings have warned about the increasing risk of death or injury if used excessively or in a way that breaks from the company’s guidelines or police department policy.
Tasers have been the source of most of the company’s revenue, according to financial filings. The company reported net sales of $268 million last year, up substantially from $197 million in revenue in 2015.
Most of this came from Taser devices and cartridges, which accounted for $202 million in sales last year, compared to the $65 million from Axon-related cameras and Evidence.com, which allows for storage of footage and other data. The Axon-related sales saw a much bigger jump, nearly doubling from a year earlier, while Taser sales went up by about a quarter.
In recent years, amid a national focus on policing and protests erupting across the U.S. over officers use deadly force, more and more departments have begun turning to body cameras. According to one estimate, up to half of the country’s 18,000 police departments have officers who wear cameras.
Police officers and the public agree on body cameras, with big majorities telling the Pew Research Center last year that they favour the use of such devices.