Taser Wants To Be Its Own Watchdog

Taser is one of those remarkable things that owns it’s generic product name, like scotch tape and fridge.  You would think that they would be happy selling stun guns to 14,000 out of 18,000 police agencies, but no, they want more.  They also want to be their own overseer, according to this article in the Economist via  Alternet.


Taser has already begun piloting AXON, a “tactical on-officer network computer” that beams video footage to a secure Web site available only to a select few. According to Big Brother Rick Smith, Taser’s boss, this site is like a “secure YouTube of global law enforcement.” He claims it will serve a dual function: Create incentives for police to behave themselves, and vindicate them when they face accusations of misuse.

While we may be suspicious of Taser’s motives, aside from having a new product to sell, what does Taser have to say about it? From their Q & A :


Why is Taser International Developing such a complex device?
The answer:


First and foremost, having transparent accountability is of utmost concern to TASER International. When you combine our built-in accountability features with the TASER other accountability features of the TASER® X26 or the ADVANCED TASER® M26 electronic control devices you have a win-win combination. We back that claim up in light of the November 2006 IACP report that showed statistical data indicates that 96.2 percent of the time, the recording of the event exonerated the officer of the allegation or complaint. By adding the TASER AXON capability you now can capture 90 percent of law enforcement action that is missed by the in-car cameras.


Byard Duncan at Alternet isn’t buying.  He suspects that footage of abusive use of Tasers will suddenly disappear.  Computers do have glitches, you know.  But I doubt it.  I don’t think Taser finds it much a problem that 3.8% of the time, the officer will be proven to have use the Taser to abuse someone, as judged by the fine people at Taser. Of course, their idea of officer exoneration and mine might differ from time to time, and given the huge number of times Tasers are used as the weapon of first resort, even the small percentage amounts to an enormous number of cops gone bad and people harmed.

And that fact that it opens Taser to a new billion dollar product doesn’t hurt either.

But if Taser’s new AXON doesn’t record instances of police misconduct and abuse, or just plain laziness, there’s always cellphones and Youtube.  Just like now.

H/T Ed at Blawg Review

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6 thoughts on “Taser Wants To Be Its Own Watchdog”

  2. Stephen

    “But the biggest winner would be Taser, which expects to charge $1,700 for the hardware, plus $99 per device per month to manage all the data.”

    Wow. That is not cheap.

  3. T.Mann

    I am going to be developing “Tazer Proof” a line of clothing that can be worn as an under garment to protect the public from these electrical welding cops.

  4. Anonymous

    You know, for being such a prolific, snarky blogger, it’s surprising that you made such a rookie grammatical mistake in the title of the post!

  6. Richard Wagner

    Reminds me of the recent article in the LA Times about the DOJ coming down on the city of Inglewood because of its turn-the-other-cheek mentality to police misconduct cases.

    The DOJ chastised the Inglewood PD for giving its cops little direction in “how and when the Taser should be used,” and advised the City to stop using the weapons on restrained suspects and recommended that the City track officers’ use of Tasers.

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