Taser Rebrands As Axon, Offers Police Body Cameras

The company that invented the Taser is rebranding as Axon, according to an announcement Wednesday. The name will represent the network of devices, apps and people the company works on. Taser will now be the name of solely the one product.

TASER International began making electrical weapons 23 years ago in the hopes of saving lives by reducing the amount of times officers shot their deadly weapons. The Taser is an electrical weapon that can stun a citizen when an officer is trying to apprehend instead of wounding them.

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Since the original Taser was released the company also expanded into body cameras and software management systems. Along with the announcement of the name change, the company announced it would begin a year-long program to give every officer a body camera, an Evidence.com unlimited pro license for data management, body mounts for cameras and other useful technology that helps agencies store, analyze and share the data they collect using the technologies.

“We want officers to have the tech that they need to keep themselves and their communities safe,” said Axon founder and CEO, Rick Smith, in a video announcement.

Smith and Axon envision a “new kind of police report” that can be drawn up by AI based on video and data collected from the cameras officers wear on the job, and eventually compile multimedia reports. It would automate all the reporting tasks police officers spend time on during the day to day, allowing officer to spend more time focusing on the communities they serve.

“ It's time for change. Our goal is to triple the time officers can spend serving their communities by automating the burden of paperwork. Sound impossible? Good. We love proving doubters wrong :),” Smith wrote in a statement online.