COMPONENT: Global Banner

Eight new features in two weeks for truth, transparency and officer development.

Axon Sprints for Justice

Hoppers for Heroes provides TerrainHopper off-road mobility devices to mobility-challenged veterans, first responders and other everyday heroes. With a ground clearance of nearly 10 inches and a 35-degree climbing capability, TerrainHopper vehicles are engineered to conquer deep mud, soft beach sand, snow, rocks, steep hills, and many other obstacles. Today, Hoppers for Heroes and Axon honored Officer Bill Weigt, who will be receiving a TerrainHopper vehicle in a couple of months.

“Don’t stop, don’t quit.” Those were the words coming out of Drill Sgt. Griffin’s mouth in the back of a Peoria ambulance as Officer Bill Weigt was whisked towards the ER. Weigt was fading fast, drifting in and out of consciousness due to a bullet lodged in his spine.

Weigt could hear the firefighters as they helped load him into the ambulance. Entry wound, but no exit wound. In that moment Weigt knew he was paralyzed. The bullet had entered his chest, hit a rib, and ricocheted to his spine.

Peoria PD is a small department. On December 17, 2005, there were 7 officers working the graveyard shift. One officer had the night off, but decided to come in anyways. That officer was Bill Weigt. A call for service came in for a drug deal gone bad. The call came in at 4:20am and involved, ironically, a dispute over a bag of weed. Officer Weigt and 5 of the other 6 officers on call were dispatched. 

Despite the ironic nature of the call, when Weigt arrived the situation that unfolded was anything but funny. The suspects attempted to outrun the officers in their car but blew a tire, and when Peoria officers advanced on the vehicle gunshots began to ring out. Officer Weigt couldn’t get to his shotgun, so he moved to a different position, when all of a sudden he was shot.

“Don’t stop, don’t quit.” It took a while to recover Officer Weigt from the scene due to ongoing gunfire. Weigt had six heroes that night. Officers Jeremy Cooper and Jason Smith moved into the line of fire to pull him out. Deputy Christian, a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy who witnessed the call on his way to work, had Officers Cooper and Smith load Weigt into his truck. Christian drove Officer Weigt as far out of the “hot zone” as he could, and finally firefighters were able to load Weigt into an ambulance. Officers Carpenter, Dugan and Borsche also played a key part in Weigt’s survival.

Before joining Peoria PD, Weigt was in the US Army Infantry for 3 years from 1993-1996. While in the Army, Bill’s Drill Sergeant was Sgt. Griffin, a tough but fair Sgt. from Georgia. During training, officers had to go into gas chambers, where Sgt. Griffin would make them recite their name, rank, social security number, and other personal info before they could leave.


“Don’t stop, don’t quit.” Sgt. Griffin was commanding Weigt, pushing him to work through his injuries. Suddenly, Sgt. Griffin disappeared and was replaced by Sgt. John White, who trained Weigt during his first week of infantry training. Sgt. White was now in the back of the ambulance, grabbing Bill and telling him to get up and get his ass in the fight. Weigt begins to struggle and trying to stand up despite his injuries. Finally, the ambulance arrived to the ER. As the doors swung open, Weigt was greeted by a bright white light and a short, Puerto Rican doctor. Weigt stopped struggling and turned to the doctor. “Am I done? Am I done now?”

Weigt was indeed done. He had survived the gunshot, the trip to the ER, and would wake up from a coma 3 days later, on December 20th, his 31st birthday. He was paralyzed, but alive. And over the next 16 years, he would continue his service for Peoria PD, although not in the field, but as an investigator.

Axon is a proud sponsor of Hoppers for Heroes, who today officially announced that Investigator Weigt will be receiving a TerrainHopper vehicle to increase his mobility. Investigator Weigt’s bravery and heroism make him a perfect candidate for the Hoppers for Heroes program.

Axon is a network of devices, apps and people that helps public safety personnel become smarter and safer. With a mission of protecting life, our technologies give customers the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe. Our products impact every aspect of a public safety officer's day-to-day experience with the goal of helping everyone get home safe.

Axon is a proud sponsor of Hoppers for Heroes, who provides TerrainHopper off-road mobility devices to mobility-challenged veterans, first responders and other everyday heroes. Axon is a network of devices, apps and people that helps public safety personnel become smarter and safer. With a mission of protecting life, our technologies give customers the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe.

Hoppers For Heroes: Bill Weigt

ARTICLE: HOPPERS FOR HEROES: BILL WEIGT

Ronald D. Vitiello

Axon’s mission to protect life includes empowering the nation’s top security, law enforcement agencies and military departments with critical public safety technology. From securing our borders to conducting criminal investigations and carrying out military operations, our government deserves the most secure and efficient technologies to help them protect the American people both domestically and abroad. Over the last year Axon’s Federal team, led by VP and General Manager Richard Coleman, has worked tirelessly to increase Axon’s presence in the Federal Space. 

The growth of any business starts with an all-star team, which is why we brought on Ronald D. Vitiello as Head of DHS Program and Strategy. Ronald dedicated his past 34 years to government service, specializing in national security. 

In 1985, Ronald joined the U.S. Border Patrol, where he quickly rose to leadership positions including special operations Supervisor, and Chief Patrol Agent in Swanton, Vermont and the Rio Grande Valley region in Texas. 

Mr. Vitiello was one of the key contributors to the unification of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

More recently, Ronald served as CBP’s Acting Deputy Commissioner and was ultimately appointed Chief of the Border Patrol in 2017. 

Ronald retired as Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) April 2019 after more than three decades of public service, but his drive to advocate for his former federal colleagues and strengthen border security remains as strong as ever. 

“I’m proud to be part of Axon’s incredible mission-driven team, helping to implement and uphold smart, secure border protection for our country,” said Ronald Vitiello, Axon’s Head of DHS Programs and Strategy. “Our technology has the power to improve efficiency and transparency across government agencies, and I look forward to building on the great accomplishments the Axon Federal team has achieved this past year.”

Given Mr. Vitiello's decades of experience and dedication to the federal space, we have no doubt he will help grow Axon Federal to the next level.

This is an exciting time for Axon, as we grow not only internationally, but into new markets at home. It is our hope that our presence in the Federal space will further our founding goal to protect life.

Axon’s mission to protect life includes empowering the nation’s top security, law enforcement agencies, and military departments with critical public safety technology. From securing our borders to conducting criminal investigations and carrying out military operations, our government deserves the most secure and efficient technologies to help them protect the American people both domestically and abroad.

Axon Welcomes Former ICE Director Ronald D. Vitiello as Head of DHS Program and Strategy

ARTICLE: Ronald D. Vitiello as Head of DHS Program and Strategy

After several “he-said-she-said” encounters, Rowan University Police Department saw the need for body-worn video to help promote transparency on campus. In late 2014, several officers at the Rowan University Police Department came to Lieutenant Craig Shute with a request for body-worn cameras. Lt. Shute presented the case for cameras to administrators, and with their approval, began the search in 2015 for a product that would work best for officers who serve the unique environment of a college campus.

The Rowan University Police Department had several requirements for their body-worn camera program and after testing and evaluating Axon for 60 days, the department determined that Axon met all their needs. They wanted a camera that wasn’t bulky, and found the Axon Body 2 camera to be wearable without affecting an officer’s day-to-day routine. They also saw a need for Axon’s cloud-based data management system Evidence.com, where they could easily upload and manage their videos without worrying about supporting additional infrastructure. They found Axon’s robust audit trails essential for their work, Lt. Shute saying “We live by that audit trail . . . we love it, and it helps us in court.”

Deploying the body-worn camera program has helped the department “build camaraderie” with community members on campus and expedite the process of reviewing complaints and working with university officials, Lt. Shute said. Using Evidence.com has also transformed how the department manages video evidence, eliminating the need to burn CDs and search for them in evidence storage rooms.

“It makes it a lot easier for us to track videos and find videos” - Lt. Shute, Rowan University PD.

Body-worn video has also strengthened the department’s training program. The Lieutenant or Detective Sergeant will typically watch 30 minutes to an hour of an officer’s footage to help review how he or she performed in different scenarios and offer one-on-one feedback. “It helps you to teach them and let them learn, and they can actually see what they did . . . as a training tool, it’s phenomenal.” - Lt. Shute, Rowan University PD


Article: How Body Worn Cameras have helped Rowan University PD

How Body Worn Cameras have helped Rowan University PD

With thousands of students, faculty, and visitors spread across college and university campuses on any given day, it is imperative for officers to understand what transpires on their campus. Preventing crimes like larceny and theft, vandalism, and maintaining general situational awareness can be especially difficult in a campus setting with so many visitors across dozens of entry and exit points. Deploying campus-wide Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR)s can create safer campuses and helps law enforcement solve crimes that occur. Axon partners with Flock Safety to offer a smart, ethically-designed ALPR network with fixed and mobile sensors for campus-wide coverage, providing a safer environment for your community.

Axon and Flock Safety joined forces to give your agency a significantly better understanding of campus activities at all times. Axon’s mobile ALPR feature of the forthcoming Axon Fleet 3 in-car video system optimally combines with Flock Safety’s 24-hour fixed cameras. By monitoring entry and exit points and other vulnerable spots on campus, Flock Safety technology will detect any potential threats as soon as they enter campus and alert your agency so that officers can quickly respond.arrive at the scene to neutralize the threat.Moreover, data shows that the existence of Flock Safety cameras decreases crime [1], which means fewer risks for campus and fewer incidents your agency needs to respond to.

The most powerful features of Flock Safety’s ALPR is its integration with Axon Evidence and thousands of cameras across the country. Flock Safety data can be shared to Axon Evidence creating one central place to manage Flock Safety ALPR records and the rest of your data. For your agency, you gain efficiency by managing your plate read records and alongside all your other evidence, and those efficiencies translate into time that can be given back to investigations that solve crime and exonerate the innocent. Also, as more institutions utilize ALPRs, the network expands and improves to catch suspects and recover stolen vehicles. Any vehicle on NCIC’s Hotlist is flagged under Flock Safety’s network, notifying your agency from hundreds of miles away. Flock Safety also aids in the discovery of stolen vehicles. Using this technology, one agency was able to recover over a half million dollars’ worth of stolen vehicles within months of installation and even reduce crime by 60%. [2]

If your campus has an existing camera system and is not ready to upgrade, the Flock Safety Wing integration transforms existing IP cameras into AI-powered hubs. You can still take advantage of Flock Safety’s patented Vehicle Fingerprint technology on your third-party cameras and use machine vision to find vehicles of interest.

Through Axon and Flock Safety’s partnership, you can ensure a safer campus and quicker investigations.

Want to learn more about the Axon and Flock Safety Integration? Read more here:https://www.axon.com/resources/articles/use-axon-flock-safety-integration

[1]https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/cobb-county-drops-crime-by-60-with-help-of-technology
[2]https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article247922255.html
[3']https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/area-police-look-to-license-plates-readers-as-crime-fighting-tool/ESQLILHQP5HJTCIVJL6IJ6T7VU/


Resources

Accelerate Resources

Product Bundles

Smart Weapons

Cameras

Software

Industries

News

Hoppers For Heroes: Bill Weigt

Axon Welcomes Former ICE Director Ronald D. Vitiello as Head of DHS Program and Strategy

How Body Worn Cameras have helped Rowan University PD

A Safer Campus with Flock Safety