Innovation isn’t about technology. It’s about courage.

By Vishal Dhir, Senior VP, Commonwealth, Axon

Not long ago, a senior police leader shared an observation that has had a big impact on me.

“Fifteen years ago,” he said, “I could scan my notebook and get charge approval almost immediately. Today, I might have multiple videos clearly showing a crime, and it takes far longer to move a case forward, because we need to provide more information, redact it, transcribe it, and package it in a specific way for disclosure.”

He wasn’t frustrated. He wasn’t assigning blame. He was simply reflecting on how much the world of policing has changed during his career.

Modern policing now operates in a fundamentally different reality than it did even a decade ago, and that gap continues to widen as the administrative demands placed on officers and their Crown partners grow significantly. Evidence has expanded far beyond handwritten notes and statements. Video, digital records, device extractions, third party data, and interconnected systems now form the backbone of investigations. Each new data source adds clarity, accountability, and transparency to the investigative process. At the same time, each adds complexity. What once fit into a notebook and relied largely on an officer’s testimony now requires transcription, redaction, translations, disclosure, review, and coordination across multiple justice stakeholders.

Public expectations have evolved alongside this shift. Communities want accountability and transparency, and they also expect timely outcomes. Police leaders are being asked to deliver all of this while supporting their people, managing increasing operational pressure, and navigating processes and systems that were built for a very different era of policing and prosecution. These challenges continue to grow, and not because of a lack of effort or commitment from police services or Crown partners. The reality is that the system is carrying a far heavier load than it was designed to handle.

When conversations turn to innovation, technology is often the first thing mentioned. New platforms. New tools. New capabilities. Policing has made meaningful progress modernising the tools available to officers and investigators.
But it’s worth noting that technology alone rarely creates lasting change.The most impactful innovations didn’t succeed because the technology itself was modernised.

They succeeded because people were willing to rethink how work was done. Smartphones did not just improve communication. They changed how we navigate daily life. Streaming did not simply replace DVDs. It reshaped how content is created and consumed. Digital banking did not just move services online. It redefined convenience, trust and access. In every case, the real transformation came from the courage to reimagine the process, not just upgrade the tools.
Public safety now stands at a similar moment.

Incremental innovation and improvements continue to matter. Small, focused enhancements to workflows and systems make daily work better and more efficient, and policing has been doing this very well. The opportunity ahead is to build on that progress by looking beyond individual systems and toward how the broader justice process works together, and what it could look like.

As evidence becomes richer and more complex, even the latest technologies can encounter friction when surrounding processes have not evolved at the same pace. When that happens, effort increases, which is reflected in the growing administrative burden experienced by both police and Crown across Canada. Innovation, approached thoughtfully, can change that dynamic. Not by replacing what works, but by aligning processes, policy, and partnerships with today’s reality.

There is an old story, often referred to as the Parable of the River, about people picnicking by a river, then seeing and pulling children from the water as they floated downstream. The next day, they come back, but this time with better tools and nets, saving more children more efficiently. They are proud of their progress. Eventually, after another day of saving children from the river, someone asks a different question. What is happening upstream that is causing so many children to fall into the river in the first place?

In public safety, “upstream” thinking might mean re examining how evidence moves through the system, where delays naturally accumulate, or how justice partners, policing, Crown, and courts, can collaborate earlier and more seamlessly to reimagine processes. This is not about criticism. It is about curiosity and possibility and having the courage to think differently.

Across healthcare, education, and private enterprise, organisations are using innovation to remove invisible burdens from their people. They are reducing friction, freeing time, and allowing professionals to focus on what matters most. Public safety has the same opportunity, not because policing is behind, but because the environment has changed and the potential impact of thinking differently has never been greater.

Innovation does not require abandoning what works. It requires the courage to evolve it.

We are at an important intersection in time, one that will have generational impact. Advances in AI and data will continue to accelerate at a pace we have not seen in our lifetimes. Complexity will continue to grow. Expectations will continue to rise. Handled well, innovation can help public safety not only keep pace, but shape what justice looks like in the years ahead.

Because innovation isn’t defined by the latest technology. It’s defined by having the courage and the willingness to rethink how things can be done. And in that willingness lies one of the greatest opportunities public safety has today.