Axon federal is proud to be participating in this year’s Congressional Black Caucus Institute (CBCI) 2022 Policy Conference in Tunica, Mississippi. 

Meeting with elected officials, community leaders, policy researchers and citizens, we will be discussing how Axon technologies help create a safer, more inclusive world; while also learning how we can continue to improve in our commitment to justice and equality. Conference attendees will also be able to get a closer look at our line of devices and software, including body cameras and less-lethal technologies.  

Our vision at Axon is a world where bullets are obsolete, where social conflict is dramatically reduced and where everyone has access to a fair and effective justice system. That is why we are looking forward to taking advantage of this opportunity with CBCI to represent Axon’s strides and best practices when it comes to creating an inclusive and diverse environment for people of all backgrounds. 

These issues hit particularly close to home for me. I knew I was destined for a career in STEM, innovation, social justice and problem-solving from a young age, and these are topics I am still passionate about today. 

In high school, I was fortunate to win state and national STEM competitions at the NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. I even had the opportunity to participate in a NASA-hosted space camp. The path to a successful STEM career was before me. However, while my dad was my first mentor who taught me the value of a strong work ethic, I wasn’t surrounded by many people that looked like me breaking into the STEM field or facing the same barriers that I could look to for guidance.

As Senior Vice-President and General Manager of the federal sector at Axon, I know just how valuable bringing diversity into the workplace can be. We are committed to creating a more just and inclusive workplace and world through our products, technology and people. My colleagues and I have made it our goal to work alongside others to achieve this and to help ensure more people have those same opportunities. This commitment is not just words, but action toward progress that I have seen unfold firsthand. Today, half of our board of directors are women or racially diverse. 

I look forward to a range of important discussions during the CBCI conference and our continued steps towards inclusive progress in a diverse and changing world. I’m proud to work at Axon and to have their support day in and day out, and this is just the beginning of the growth to come. It’s clear: representation and inclusivity matter, in the workplace and the world. 


Richard Coleman II is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Federal Sector for Axon. In this capacity Richard has overall responsibility for developing and implementing the Federal Sector’s strategy and managing and executing the Federal Sector’s profit and loss. In addition to his duties at Axon, Richard serves on the Board of the Border Security Technology Consortium. He is also a W.P. Carey Alumni board member, an IRA Fulton School of Engineering board member and supports several non-profit organizations, including the Border Patrol Foundation. Richard earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Electrical and Systems Engineering and an Executive master’s in business administration from Arizona State University.

Non-Axon trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners.

The Axon federal team is proud to be participating in this year’s Congressional Black Caucus Institute (CBCI) 2022 Policy Conference in Tunica, Mississippi.

Learn more about how Axon technologies help create a safer, more inclusive world at the link below.

Technology

BLOG: Representation & Inclusivity Matters, in the Workplace & the World

Representation & Inclusivity Matters, in the Workplace & the World

We recently sat down with Ryan King, Corporate Manager of Security, Safety and Emergency Management to discuss how hospital security leaders are addressing major industry challenges and what forward thinkers in the industry are doing. 

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

I have been in the healthcare security industry for 20 years, all of which has been spent in different healthcare systems around Florida. I’ve been a member and held positions of leadership in IAHSS (International Association of Healthcare Security and Safety) since 2009. In college, I attained my Masters in Criminal Justice and Security Administration, and a Bachelors in Information Technology. I currently oversee Security, Safety and Emergency Management in a large healthcare system. 

How would you describe your approach to security? 

I approach Security as more of a business entity than many. We are in the business of loss prevention, however the definition is expanded from traditional roles. We center our mission around preventing loss of not only goods, but services, staff safety, patient safety, reputation, and community risk related to the patients and communities we serve. 

I have watched over the past 15 years and seen two major shifts in the Healthcare Security Industry. We are becoming closer to the model of campus police like you would find at universities or larger campuses. At the same time, our approach has to be balanced with business management as well. Risk Avoidance, Project Management, ROI calculations, Business Analytics. Also, you must have experience in Safety and Emergency Management as these are often overseen by the security Department as well. I remember a statement another Security leader once said that we have moved beyond Guns, Gates and Guards and that is definitely true. 

Can you give us a brief overview of your security strategy and its elements? What kind of technologies do you use? How about training and certifications? 

A: We work with overlapping zone methodology. We currently have 38 FTE’s in the Department and gives us 4 zones per shift per hospital. We also staff 1 officer around the clock at our Freestanding EDs. We leverage technologies that include CCTV, Access Control, Panic devices, and officers carry the Axon TASER X2 device. Officers receive over 80 hours of policy and theory training specific to healthcare security work, then generally shadow another officer for 40-80hours depending on the zone complexity. All officers are annually certified on handcuff, BLS and TASER. 

What are some common challenges you face running security within a healthcare environment? 

The major challenge I’ve come across is the convergence and lack of resources for mental health. As more public health infrastructure surrounding mental health is closing due to financial, staffing, or other constraints, this load is being pushed onto hospitals. Those of us in the field have known this for some time. The violence we see as security personnel are involving mentally ill or those with some kind of behavior abnormality not necessarily premeditated criminal behavior.  This also goes against what most people think where security is an extension or type of law enforcement action. 

Any specific examples you can share that illustrate those challenges? 

Over 20 years, I can easily say >80% of all my use of force actions have been in dealing with those of some type of behavior modification. That can be mental illness, substance abuse, alcoholism etc.  Now in the past two years with covid and increase geopolitical tensions we are seeing more escalation from people with long wait times in the ED, restricted visitation of loved ones and other issues. These are also related to diminished coping mechanisms, maybe not people dealing with clinical mental illness, but definitely not dealing with people having their best day. We often say, “nobody wakes up and says I think I’ll go the hospital for the day”.  

So the reason this is a challenge is because in hospitals we have cardiac specialist, and a respiratory therapist, and an orthopedic specialist, but only those with internal mental health units have a behavioral or psychiatric specialist. A lack of staff equipped to deal with mental issues is what leads to these issues escalating into criminal events. Few come in with the intention of causing harm but when tense situations are not met with the right response, things often escalate. 

How did COVID challenge your security team? 

Touching on what I said earlier, things did get more escalated. For a while we got a little bored. You know units were closed down, visitor access was greatly reduced to minimize exposure so there was a reduction by as much as 60% of the people on our campus.  We went into a more traditional asset protection role.  But after 2020, and about midway through 2021, when masking was becoming a contentious issue, we saw people’s patience wane and tense situations turn into violent situations more often. Even staff members, burned out by the past year, were becoming part of the escalations and just didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with some of these issues. We changed our posture again for high visibility, frequent rounds through all units, more customer service to get people where they need to go quickly and with little confusion that can be a trigger of anxiety or emotions. I call it being emotionally proactive to reduce the likelihood of scenarios escalating into violence. 

What are the next big challenges you see on the horizon? How do you plan to adjust your strategy to meet these challenges?

I think if Covid has shown us anything, it’s that the world is volatile right now and the healthcare security industry is changing quickly. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan, but I feel the answer isn’t the next gadget or business book strategy. It’s how you interact with people. Rebuilding relationships lost, working together, not as security roles, business roles and patient care roles, but working as a team will have the greatest impact. And I’ll give this example. If you have 1,000 employees on your campus and they are moving around, that is equivalent to 1,000 mobile cameras roving your halls. If you train them properly in how to de-escalate and avoid confrontations, you’ll avoid incidences of assault and violence more effectively than with any other tactic. That’s why the government took the “see something say something” approach. It takes a village, and we must think holistically about how the community can prevent assault and violence. 

How do you stay current on security trends and innovations? 

I attend the IAHSS meetings and conferences on a regular basis, and keep up on industry newsletters and publications. Unfortunately, a lot of the publications again keep to this violence piece almost exclusively and active shooters even more so. I think that is because it is the end effect (the criminal action) so they find it easier to define. I am excited by coverage that gets into how situations were prevented from escalating. 

I do think camera AI is going to be big. Most hospitals have over 300 cameras. There is no way for an officer in a command center to watch that with any efficiency. The video walls are no longer going to work. They need to be triggered by set AI then pop up on screens that are then answered by intervention. The issue again with that is to be proactive you must have the right programming. 

 Could you talk about any recent trends or innovations that have caught your attention? 

One is use of force options. I have carried a TASER for a long time. My opinions differ from many colleagues, but not all State Security Officers have to go through a psych evaluation, and I believe it is important for how security responds with lethal force. There is also no training or legal mandate in regard to how security should engage a shooter like there is for law enforcement. So, if I can’t test your mental soundness, train you on tactical response, and legally require to you to engage an active shooter then how do we know how to respond with lethal force? 

The TASER allows us to keep people and ourselves safe without resorting to a lethal option. It may not help in an active shooter situation, but I’ll prep for the 95% likelihood of physical violence over the small likelihood of an active shooter in the hospital. 

What are the key topics healthcare security leaders are talking about right now? 

Active shooters and workplace violence. I could talk about either of these topics for a while, but I will just say that although they both relate to violence, we must separate these in discussion. Active shooter is almost always pre-meditated and you know you have one when the first shots are fired. Other than building hardening and corridor lockdown design, I don’t believe there is much you can do. These are criminally driven, and the first one shot is the Officer at the metal detector.  Hospitals also have unique risk is that much of our patients are not ambulatory so they can’t Run, Hide or Fight. 

Workplace violence against nurses is the #1 rally cry for Security, and it should be. But for WPV, the preventative measure is the mental health specialist.  Every day we have chaplains reading through patient files and looking for indicators of an active shooter. Mental health should be at least that important. Most of the violence in hospitals stems from mental health, emotional explosions and a need not met. Security is just one part of the equation needed to prevent workplace violence.  

Are there any challenges you face when creating change within a large healthcare organization? 

The largest of course is competing priorities. The bills are paid with clinical interventions, we simply protect the business. So funding and prioritization of projects are always difficult. And video/access control is very expensive. You have to be good at business proposals, showing the ROI and strategic planning. 

Another is the turnover. Hospitals tend to have high turnover both of actual people and roles. The person you worked with in accounting may move to payroll, or IT, or the ED director may move to Surgical. The use of travelers also make training of nursing staff difficult. Many come with their training or security views from another state. Both of these labor issues make training and professional relationships difficult. I feel every couple years it’s like we have to start over. 

What do event healthcare leaders need to focus on to succeed over the next few years? 

Learn healthcare business and risk. It’s not a retirement job nor is it just criminal protection. It has its own unique flavor, but healthcare security leaders must understand finances, strategy, prevention and risk just like any other leader. Our business is dealing with people that are not at their best. Whether that’s pain, mental health, or fear. It’s fight or flight with many of our patients and we have to recognize this to respond appropriately.  

What will healthcare security look like in 5 or 10 years?

Recapping what I said prior, I think proactive AI, body cams, mobile panic devices are probably the greatest needs. We aren’t getting any more staff, so streamlining processing to make them more efficient will be necessary. I think the line between security and policing models that look more like college campus police will be the norm. However, I don’t want to see the other values we bring such as safety and empathy suffer as a result. The protective division of the hospital just needs to have multiple verticals. I’ll compare it to Public Safety – you have Police, Fire, EMS and Communications as part of this collective. That’s how I envision healthcare security in the future - Security, Emergency Management, Safety, Education and Technology. 

Any interesting stories or experiences to share as a parting thought? 

A story I have on this is when we had a really sharp ED Director that came from Chicago. Now I mentioned I live in Florida so she started asking why I don’t have metal detection and armed police at every entrance and K9 units. So I asked for a meeting and I brought our crime index for the area, 3 years of ED violence data, and the local law enforcement liaison to discuss trends and give a united front and was able to show that Florida, (and especially my area of it), just doesn’t have that level of gangs or violence. She used this to reassure her own staff that were often more worked up by media and news stories than they needed to be. You have to know your area, and sector. 

How hospital security leaders are addressing major industry challenges and what forward thinkers in the industry are doing

Interview with an Expert – How Ryan King is Facilitating Safety and Innovation in Healthcare Security

ARTICLE: Interview with an Expert – How Ryan King is Facilitating Safety and Innovation in Healthcare Security

Today, Axon announced new members for the 2022 Community Advisory Coalition (CAC). Formed in 2021, the CAC brings together community leaders to share perspectives and inform Axon’s products and services. By bringing diverse perspectives to the table, Axon continues to demonstrate commitment to one of its core pillars: centering racial equity, diversity and inclusion.

“Axon recognizes that communities are the ultimate end-users of public safety technologies.”

“Axon recognizes that communities are the ultimate end-users of public safety technologies,” says Regina Holloway, Axon’s VP of Community Impact. “The CAC will continue to help us develop fresh ideas to impart the principles of justice and equity in the product development cycle. We are committed to establishing a community voice within our technology and using outreach to educate communities on our products. In doing so, we are able to develop responsible technology and further our mission to protect life.”

For full details of this announcement, please visit: Axon Announces New Community Coalition Members; Coalition Continues Work Promoting Responsible Development of Public Safety Technologies

Coalition Continues Work Promoting Responsible Development of Public Safety Technologies

Axon Announces New Community Coalition Members

ARTICLE: Axon Announces New Community Coalition Members

At Axon our mission is to protect life. We are out to make the world a safer place by solving big problems and taking on the public safety challenges of our time. Since our founding in 1993, we have invested significantly in devices and integrated software solutions to help public safety agencies make their communities safer. Today, more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies in 100+ countries around the world are part of the Axon network.

As a leader in building hardware and software solutions for public safety, Axon is now making considerable strides in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the Axon ecosystem of products, every offering works together as a connected network, which requires innovative technologies driven by user-focused design every step of the way. By owning and delivering a large portion of the value chain from leading-edge devices to cloud services, there are multiple opportunities for AI to add unique value to our public safety customers and the communities they serve.

Yasser M. Ibrahim, SVP of AI at Axon, explains, "There is a lot to accomplish. There are many areas to explore, and it is truly exciting if you’re a builder and really want to work in an area where there is considerable potential that hasn’t been fully realized yet."

When does an organization need to consider building a solution using AI as opposed to conventional Software Engineering?

The primary question an organization should examine while innovating in this area, is whether the customer problem they are trying to solve really requires an algorithmically and operationally complex approach like AI, instead of a relatively more wieldy technology. For starters, a solution built using AI doesn’t usually give a single concrete answer to a given question or query, instead it gives probabilities representing which set of answers are likely to be correct. Furthermore, this process is not bullet proof as it lacks immunity to producing false positives and even missing the correct answers altogether.

Sometimes the newest technological advancement isn’t the most effective or suitable solution. AI, while becoming an increasingly hot topic in tech and the media, isn’t always the best choice. Instead, innovators need to evaluate the most effective technology options without overcomplicating the development process. Sometimes, the smartest choice is based on tried and tested legacy technology.

Imagine a law enforcement agency needs a dashboard containing crime statistics in a given geographical area. We can provide these reports by utilizing conventional software, including databases and the appropriate query language, to calculate those crime analytics. This is a deterministic approach by definition and as such it would be counterproductive to use AI for the same exact purpose. However, an algorithmic approach would be called for in a more complicated case, such as when a law enforcement agency wants a tool to optimize the allocation of patrol officers over a given geographical area based on myriad set of factors like time of day, crime rate and personnel availability. In this case AI might be a potential candidate for a solution that is worthy of investigating.

To summarize: while conventional software, analytics and AI algorithms maybe overlapping, they all have different purposes, risks and associated development costs. Making it is essential to educate an organization on what AI is and what it isn’t.

Furthermore, AI is quite unsustainable in the long-term unless you can apply it in a responsible manner. Irresponsible AI which doesn’t take into account the impact on society, is easy to implement for small problems, but it’s not scalable. On the other hand, using science and engineering responsibly, although time consuming, provides a competitive advantage because people who ignore ethics will erode both trust and performance over time.


A commitment to innovation, positive impact, and community

Ethics-by-Design is an organizational approach to the responsible use of technology, and as such there needs to be deliberate steps organizations take to implement it. This development cannot be done in a vacuum; its social impact ought to be considered from the beginning. Organizations that use technology ethically consider not only the benefits but also the potential harm to society at every stage of their decision-making process, which is especially important for Axon and how we serve our public safety customers.


“Before you start with new technologies, you have to define how it may impact society.”

To define this impact, Axon has an independent AI Ethics Board that provides expert advice and guidance during product conception and subsequent development. The Ethics Board has developed a framework for analyzing the ethical costs and benefits associated with new products. This is an important framework within Axon, even for products that do not use AI.

To create with an Ethics-by-Design framework, it is important that the team composition reflect the diversity we see in the world. A diverse, and importantly, inclusive team is required so you can apply a spectrum of opinions, genders, ethnicities, income levels and skill sets to a challenge. This allows the team to consider all angles when working with new ideas and products in a way that truly creates groundbreaking technology.

A diverse team that espouses and builds upon those ethical framework guidelines leads to innovation focusing more on how products can positively impact a community at large. With AI employed into the right product, in the right way and at the right time, it can become a great catalyst that helps address tangible societal issues.

Innovation starts with building a world-class AI team

As we grow our AI team, Axon aims to attract a diverse group of talented engineers and scientists at all levels, who are as excited as we are about our Ethics-by-Design ethos. A great candidate for our team starts with the eagerness to understand the customer problem as they responsibly develop an AI solution to address it. We seek candidates who are interested in developing something meaningful and impactful, such as how to operationalize AI in a way that preserves privacy, maintains fairness and avoids bias. It’s not enough to implement the latest and greatest approaches in AI when building new products; a successful candidate has to show they are able to take these ethical considerations into account and address the corresponding design challenges at scale with the team.

At Axon, we focus intently on real problems while developing end-to-end solutions. This requires a multidisciplinary team with the right balance of AI Scientists, ML Engineers, Software Engineers and Product/Program Managers. As the team evolves, we’re looking to include subject matter experts in every AI modality to build proprietary models that include audio, video, text and images for our products.

In addition to building the right team, it is also imperative to keep pace with the ever-changing AI advancements. Still, as we add in novel AI layers to some of our products, we do so with the customer and impact to community in mind. Keeping Ethics-by-Design in the foreground of all we do helps Axon get closer to its goal of providing more effective tools in service of our mission to Protect Life and Preserve the Truth.


Yasser Ibrahim is Axon’s SVP of Artificial Intelligence and leads Axon’s AI Team from the Seattle office. Prior to joining Axon, Yasser served as Amazon’s head of distributed machine learning at Alexa AI. He led applied science and ML engineering teams developing state-of-the-art deep learning frameworks and distributed algorithms powering Alexa’s large scale ML experimentation and production platforms. He also led multidisciplinary engineering and science teams building computer vision systems and computational imaging algorithms for Amazon Go, the world’s first “Just Walk Out” store and technology platform. At Microsoft, Mr. Ibrahim led computer vision system teams to deliver technologies such as Pixelsense, and previously developed flight control and autopilot systems for flight simulators at CAE Inc., in Montreal.


At Axon our mission is to protect life. We are out to make the world a safer place by solving big problems and taking on the public safety challenges of our time.

ARTICLE: AI Ethics - The Role of Responsible AI Within the Axon Ecosystem

The Role of Responsible AI Within the Axon Ecosystem

Axon and its Ethics Board will work with public safety thought leaders and diverse community leaders to develop a model framework for law enforcement agencies to responsibly and ethically deploy this technology consistent with the Ethics Board's guidance, which was set forth in their report published today.

"ALPR is an important tool for keeping communities safe as it can help apprehend criminals, find missing children, and recover stolen vehicles," says Axon CEO and founder, Rick Smith. "We do, however, recognize that there are legitimate concerns about privacy protections, constitutionality of search and data security issues that need to be addressed. We embrace that we have an ethical obligation to develop this technology thoughtfully and bring new privacy safeguards to the industry. While building ALPR, we'll be addressing items such as data retention and data ownership, creating an ethical framework to help prevent misuse of the technology."

Axon is leveraging the power of AI to significantly reduce the cost of ALPR systems, making it affordable for every patrol. Axon is simultaneously addressing industry short-comings to improve data security, transparency and privacy as declining costs enable more widespread use of the technology. Axon plans to work collaboratively with communities to better understand and implement controls such as maximum retention periods and transparency tools.

One recommendation in the Ethics Board's report calls for agency ownership and control over the captured license plate data, declaring that data should not be sold for commercial purposes. For years, Axon has protected digital evidence by maintaining a secure cloud-based system that allows agencies to control data, ensuring use only for public safety purposes. Consistent with the Ethics Board's recommendations, Axon will maintain that same high level of security and privacy standards with ALPR data.

"We have not, and will not ever sell public safety data. We believe the data is owned by public safety agencies and the communities they serve, and should not be resold to private entities whose interests may not be aligned with the public good," concluded Smith.

"The unregulated use of ALPRs has exposed millions of people subject to surveillance by law enforcement, and the danger to our basic civil rights is only increasing as the technology is becoming more common," says Ethics Board member Barry Friedman, founder of the Policing Project at the New York University School of Law and the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law at New York University. "If government is going to continue to abdicate its responsibility to regulate this technology appropriately, and we hope it doesn't, it is incumbent on companies like Axon to ensure that ALPRs serve the communities who are subject to ALPR usage. This includes guardrails to ensure their use does not compromise civil liberties or worsen existing racial and socioeconomic disparities in the criminal justice system."

Axon Fleet 3 will use AI for ALPR to help reduce officer distraction. For example, when searching for stolen vehicles or criminals today, patrol officers manually look up vehicle license plates by typing into their computers. ALPR helps eliminate the need for typing while driving. Today, most agencies deploy ALPR via specialized vehicle units with plate recognition systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars in only a portion of the vehicle fleet. Axon Fleet 3 will integrate ALPR capability in the dashboard camera of every patrol vehicle, allowing agencies to deploy more coverage at a lower cost. Axon Fleet 3 will also enable Axon Aware real-time telemetry and video streaming capabilities and will be upgradeable to 5G to leverage low-latency connectivity for enhanced real-time services and direct video offload to the cloud.

Axon will be previewing Axon Fleet 3 at the 126th annual International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference, this week in Chicago at Axon's booth number 2211. There, Axon will be demonstrating enhanced 5G real-time services.

Axon is a global network of devices, apps, training 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 protect their communities. Our products impact every aspect of a public safety officer's day-to-day experience.

We work hard for those who put themselves in harm's way for all of us. To date, there are more than 397,800 software seats booked on the Axon network around the world and more than 223,000 lives have been saved with the Axon network of devices, apps, training and people. Learn more at www.axon.com or by calling (800) 978-2737.

Facebook is a trademark of Facebook, Inc. and Twitter is a trademark of Twitter, Inc.

Axon, Axon Fleet, Axon Records, Axon Aware, Axon Detect and the Delta Logo are trademarks of Axon Enterprise, Inc., some of which are registered in the US and other countries. For more information, visit www.axon.com/legal. All rights reserved.

Axon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/axon_us

Axon on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Axon.ProtectLife/

Please visit http://investor.axon.com, https://www.axon.com/press, www.twitter.com/axon_us and  https://www.facebook.com/Axon.ProtectLife/ where Axon discloses information about the company, its financial information and its business.

CONTACT:
Carley Partridge
PR and Communications Manager
Press@axon.com

 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/axon-announces-ai-powered-in-car-license-plate-reader-system-built-with-ethical-design-and-privacy-centric-framework-300943640.html

Axon Announces AI-Powered In-Car License Plate Reader System Built With Ethical Design and Privacy-Centric Framework

Axon Fleet 3 AI-Powered License Plate Reader System

ARTICLE: Axon Anncounces AI-Powered In-Car License Plate Reader System

In April of 2018, the Axon AI and Policing Technology Ethics Board (the board) was formed to provide us with advice on the development of AI products and services. Because of the business we are in, we asked them to pay particular attention to the impact of AI technologies on communities. The first board report provides us with thoughtful and actionable recommendations regarding face recognition technology that we, as a company, agree with. We believe it is important to share and discuss these recommendations here.

Current face matching technology raises serious ethical concerns. In addition, there are technological limitations to using this technology on body cameras. Consistent with the board's recommendation, Axon will not be commercializing face matching products on our body cameras at this time. 

We do believe face matching technology deserves further research to better understand and solve for the key issues identified in the report, including evaluating ways to de-bias algorithms as the board recommends. Our AI team will continue to evaluate the state of face recognition technologies and will keep the board informed about our research.

To date, Axon's work on face recognition has revolved around detecting, tracking and re-identifying faces in videos for the purpose of blurring out or redacting those faces prior to public release, in service of protecting people's privacy rights. “Re-identification” refers to the automated process of finding all the re-occurrences of a person's face in a single video. These algorithms do not attempt to match the identity of the individual to a database, only to identify video frames that are likely to include faces so that they can be redacted. Face detection (not face matching) and re-identification technology improves civic oversight by accelerating the speed and reducing the cost for agencies to disclose videos to the public, while protecting individual privacy during public records release events.

Technology is moving much faster than legislative bodies and courts can respond. Hence, we believe it is critical for technology leaders to work hard to understand the ethical, legal, and community implications for new technologies that are too new to be effectively covered by existing law.

With the guidance of our board, we are committed to developing technologies in an ethical and responsible manner. We will invest in working in a transparent manner and in tandem with leading independent researchers to de-bias training data and algorithms. 

Policing Transparency and Democratic Accountability

Our product development philosophy is clear and includes a wide array of oversight and audit technologies to deter abuse. This includes cartridge serialization (AFID), weapons data logs to record and report usage, integrated TASER cameras and body-worn cameras, automated sensors to activate camera recording, and soon gunshot detection to ensure events involving firearm discharges are recorded. None of these safeguards are required by law, but we see them as the right thing to do. Axon's goal is to build powerful new technologies with the right safeguards in place within the spirit of legal and ethical frameworks and community expectations. The board supports us in our pursuit to more clearly define and establish our ethical framework for new products. Our goal is to put the formal ethical framework policy in place later this year. We also share the board's desire to build the appropriate tools that will allow agencies to release to the public the appropriate data about the use of Axon products.

We thank the members of our board for the advice they have provided us, and we appreciate the time and effort that each member has dedicated to this effort. Outside ethical advisory boards like this are a new concept among technology companies, and we are proud to embrace it and design an ethical roadmap that we hope other companies can emulate. Our hope is that Axon’s and the board’s lessons learned can help guide other companies and organizations that may be considering implementing similar advisory boards. 

Axon has formed an AI ethics board to give advice on the development of AI products and services. Read the first board report to see recommendations regarding face recognition technology we agree with.

AI Ethics Board Report

ARTICLE: AI Ethics Board Report

By: Rick Smith

The Future of Face Matching at Axon and AI Ethics Board Report

Hear Stuart McKee, National Technology Officer - U.S. Public Sector, from Microsoft and former Axon VP of AI and Machine Learning talking about how we believe building responsible and trusted AI is important. Axon has established AI Ethics Board to guide our AI research, and makes sure that our work is CJIs compliant. Watch the Webinar below to learn more.

Learn from Axon and our partner Microsoft about Ethical AI application in Law Enforcement

Ethical AI in Law Enforcement Webinar Replay

Learn from Axon and Microsoft about AI application in Law Enforcement

Axon Ethical AI in Law Enforcement Webinar

ARTICLE: Ethical AI in Law Enforcement Webinar

Ethical AI in Law Enforcement Webinar

It's not often that companies the size of Axon are compared favorably to Google. But it happened last week in a Forbes article:

"This week, Axon ... demonstrated the kind of transparency that Google should aspire towards when it announced an AI ethics board to 'help guide the development of Axon's AI-powered devices and services'."

Let's recall that Google started with a machine-learned algorithm called PageRank. Since then, it has been a powerhouse for machine learning (ML), and arguably no other company has commercialized ML and artificial intelligence (AI) more than Google. They have also been paying attention to the ethical side of AI for a relatively long time. DeepMind's ethics board was formed in 2014. In his 2017 Founders’ Letter, Sergey Brin (the Google co-founder with the beard - in case you mix them up like I do) writes about AI: “such powerful tools also bring with them new questions and responsibilities. How will they affect employment across different sectors? How can we understand what they are doing under the hood? What about measures of fairness? How might they manipulate people? Are they safe?”

So being positioned above Google in the AI ethics space is a tall order.

For most people, the conversation about ethics of AI starts with the thought of sentient AI that could take over and rule us all one day. Before a congressional hearing on AI, Congressman Hurd asked people on the street about AI, and no surprise, most people's idea of AI is formed by movies. Naturally, doomsday scenario is the #1 notion in their mind.

The AI-apocalypse-frenzy has happened many times when a new technology has made a breakthrough. The printing press, the Internet, the mobile phone, Snapchat...the list goes on. Perhaps when the wheel was invented, concerned parents were skeptical. At the same time, if data is the new oil as they say, we obviously made a mess with the previous oil we discovered.

Which scenario is going to unfold then? Is it going to be all rosy or all gloomy? What can we do about it? Freeze and take no action? Or take a swing and see how things will unfold?

We don't have to accept what the movies or any pundit or expert predicts. We can help forge the world around us at present and create the future. There are talkers - people who freeze at the sight of any potential change and their only response is inaction and talking about how things are not going to work out. And then there are doers - people who work on making the world a better place every day by facing challenges, taking risks, and walking into uncharted territories. At Axon we are doers, and we believe that the world will be a better place with AI, if developed responsibly.

As a technologist, I believe that technology should—as it has in many cases so far—allow us to be more human. I am optimistic that AI, done the right way, will allow us to be more human.

The Michael Jordan of ML wrote in a recent blog post that what is clumped together as “AI” these days can be divided into three main categories which are in fact different things:

Human-imitative Artificial Intelligence (HIAI): Making machines that understand the world and have similar cognitive capabilities as humans. This is what most people know as AI.

Intelligence Augmentation (IA): The kind of AI that augments human intelligence and improves our productivity. The same way that eyeglasses can make us see better or cars can make us move faster, this kind of AI can enable us to do more by achieving higher levels of cognitive abilities. Examples include search engines and smart speakers.

Intelligent Infrastructure (II): When we use AI to improve the infrastructure of our information-based society and usually involves many connected devices. For example, Uber uses AI to create an Intelligent Infrastructure that moves millions of people around the world every week, and dating websites use AI to create an intelligent infrastructure for matching couples.

At Axon, the AI Research Team has focused on #2 and #3 and not on #1. We see AI as an assistant to our customers in public safety. It will help and support them in making decisions. It will provide a very effective set of tools for the officers to do more (efficiency) and have better access to crucial information and real-time safety measures (vigilance). In doing this we ensure that our AI technologies complement and augment the human intelligence while leaving all decision making to human judgment. In short, Axon AI technologies will empower the officers to be more human.

We do our AI development while keeping the ethical aspects front and center to every step of the process - from data collection to model training, inference, evaluation, and interpretation of the results. By avoiding AI type #1, we ensure that there is always a human-in-the-loop to make the final judgments whenever there might be a risk of impinging upon privacy or civil rights. Axon's AI Ethics Board keeps us in check.

We are committed to ensuring that the technology we develop makes the world a better and safer place. Our first-of-its-kind AI Ethics Board is a profound statement in that direction.

We are nowhere near done. There will be critics who point out shortcomings, fairly or unfairly, but this is a journey and it matters that we have started it. Theodore Roosevelt once said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, [..] who does actually strive to do the deeds;

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT AXON'S AI RESEARCH? Learn More

Axon AI team shares the vision for the AI research, focusing on ethical development of Intelligence Augmentation (IA) and Intelligent Infrastructure (II).

ARTICLE: Responsible AI

Axon is leading the industry in Responsible AI

The development of body-worn cameras for law enforcement created a new way to collect and manage evidence and provided a clearer avenue of transparency between officers and citizens. However, this new technology initially created a vacuum around how to govern the use of this new tool. Prior to the wide deployment of body cameras, state, county, and municipal governments did not have specific laws or policies to deal with such technology. Many states did have some laws that were applicable to body-worn cameras as it relates to two-party consent or restrictions of recordings where privacy is expected, but these laws were not enacted for dealing with body-worn cameras.

The question became: do these current laws apply to body cameras — and if so, how — or do new laws need to be drafted and enacted to deal with this emerging technology?

Well, the answer to this question is complex and still being debated nationwide. The reason why it is so complex, is because all 50 states, the District of Columbia, large cities, and county governments are each individually forming laws and policies that govern the use and deployment of body-worn cameras. There is no one policy or nationwide law, but varying guidelines based on a web of state, county, or city laws and regulations. These laws and regulations may be drastically different depending on what part of the country you find yourself in.

State and local laws and policies, are living, breathing documents that can stand the test of time or be changed without a moment’s notice.

In general, about 30 states and the District of Columbia have created some type of law regarding body-worn cameras. The initial trend of legislation in 2014 and 2015 mostly focused on authoring government to create commissions or committees to study body-worn cameras or to begin to pilot and evaluate the technology. In many cases, the primary purpose of these commissions was to create recommendations on best practices and policies for a body-worn camera program.

As state and local governments gain more information from studying body-worn cameras, and as their local law enforcement agencies, began to test the technology, a second wave of legislation began. This second wave, in late 2015 and 2016, focused on public access to body-worn cameras footage, creating standard policy requirements, requiring certain type of officers to be equipped with cameras, and creating grant programs to help law enforcement agency procure the technology.

The legislation we are seeing in 2017 is similar to 2016. States are continuing to push for standardization of policy, this time around the balance of keeping police data for evidence and allowing public access to the data for transparency purposes. In addition, we are seeing, in some cases, legislation that would adjust state laws already pertaining to body-worn cameras to allow for easier use of the technology. This comes through trial and error. It is difficult to legislate new technology before seeing it fully deployed and operational for a few years.

State and local laws and policies, are living, breathing documents that can stand the test of time or be changed without a moment’s notice. As body-worn cameras become standard issue over the next few years, and as new hardware and software features are added to body-worn camera programs – new laws and regulations will continue to be promulgated.

The development of body-worn cameras for law enforcement created a new way to collect and manage evidence and provided a clearer avenue of transparency between officers and citizens. Learn about the history of body-worn camera policy in this article written by Esmael Ansari, Axon Director of Government Affairs.

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