Axon, the police technology company best known for selling stun guns and police body cameras, has halted its latest project in the wake of a series of deadly mass shootings: a drone equipped with a stun gun and a surveillance system.
“In light of feedback, we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward,”
Chief Executive Rick Smith said in a statement on Sunday.
Earlier, ethics board member Wael Abd-Almageed told Reuters he and eight colleagues were resigning from the 12-member panel, in a rare public rebuke by one of the watchdog groups that some companies have set up in recent years.
The Company’s Original Press Release Reads:
Axon announced it has formally begun development of a non-lethal, remotely-operated TASER drone system as part of a long-term plan to stop mass shootings, and reaffirmed it is committed to public engagement and dialogue during the development process.
This includes accelerating detection and improving real-time situational awareness of active shooter events, enhancing first responder effectiveness through VR training, and deploying remotely operated non-lethal drones capable of incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds.
“Today, the only viable response to a mass shooter is another person with a gun,” says Axon CEO and founder Rick Smith. “In the aftermath of these events, we get stuck in fruitless debates. We need new and better solutions. For this reason, we have elected to publicly engage communities and stakeholders, and develop a remotely operated, non-lethal drone system that we believe will be a more effective, immediate, humane, and ethical option to protect innocent people.”
“In my 2019 book, The End of Killing, I described in detail how such a system could work, as illustrated in this graphic novel. Now is the time to make this technology a reality—and to begin a robust public discussion around how to ethically introduce non-lethal drones into schools. I proposed the Three Laws of First Responder Robotics to lay the groundwork of an ethical and legal framework to safeguard these systems so that we can improve public safety and avoid misuse. Today is the next step as Axon will begin formal product development on technology centered around these ideas,” continues Smith.
1 – Integrate camera networks and other sensors into real-time communications with first responders.
Axon recently announced a partnership with Fusus, which allows schools, businesses or other enterprises to easily connect and share security camera feeds with local public safety and other security partners. With this integration, Axon body cameras, Axon Fleet dashboard cameras, and Axon Air-powered drones with the Fusus network will provide real-time access to a wide network of sensors during critical events. Fusus gives full and secure control of data sharing to the owner of each camera and sensor, so they can choose exactly when access is shared and with whom. This is available today through the partnership with Fusus.
“Trying to find and stop an active shooter based on the telephone game connecting victim 911 callers is antiquated,” says Chris Lindenau, CEO of Fusus. “Fusus brings the ability to share any security camera to first responders, providing known locations and visual live feeds regardless of which security cameras they use. This network of cameras, with human and AI monitoring, together with panic buttons and other local communication tools, can detect and ID a threat before a shot is fired and dramatically improve response times and situational awareness.”
2 – Enhance first responder effectiveness through immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Active Shooter Response Training. Axon recently launched Virtual Reality Simulator Training to provide highly immersive and engaging training experiences for public safety. Through partnerships with key expert and stakeholder groups, Axon will develop and deliver more effective training for responding to mass shooting events in the next 12 months.
3 – Enable immediate threat incapacitation through remotely operated, non-lethal drone capability.
Axon is actively developing a miniaturized, lightweight TASER payload capable of being deployed on a small drone or robot. Axon has begun collaborating with our partner DroneSense on a remote piloting capability and our imaging team will develop the targeting algorithms to assist operators in properly and safely aiming the device.
Note that all use-of-force decisions will be made by an authenticated and authorized human operator who has agreed to take legal and moral responsibility for any force actions initiated. Axon is collaborating with a variety of drone hardware providers and will make a selection later this year on final development partner(s). Functional proof of concept will be available in 2023 with a full solution ready in 2024.
“In 2020, 3,500 people died in fires in the United States. That same year, 45,222 people died of firearm related injuries. There are over 10 million fire hydrants pre-emplaced in the United States, and every modern building has fire suppression systems to contain fires until fire-fighters can arrive,” notes Smith. “I believe we can create systems that can detect, deter, and ultimately stop a shooter within a building for a comparable cost as, or less than, fire suppression systems.”
To ensure the safe, responsible, and transparent deployment of this technology, Axon is integrating the Authentication, Authorization, and Accountability (AAA) Control System. This comprehensive framework ensures only approved and highly trained users can operate and activate the system, and that an end-to-end audit trail is retained, providing 100% transparency on the deployment and engagement of every remotely operated TASER system.
The AAA Control System is key to implementing Axon’s 3 Laws of First Responder Robotics. These three laws developed in discussions with various experts, stakeholders and the general public will continue to evolve to ensure Axon understands and mitigates risks associated with this new technology to the greatest degree possible.
- Humans must own decisions and remain accountable. Robots must be controlled by authenticated human operators who accept legal and moral responsibility for any decision that impacts a human subject.
- Drones should be used to save lives, not take them. Operators of drones who are not in immediate danger are duty bound to de-escalate whenever possible and deploy the minimal force necessary. Only non-deadly force should be used.
- Agencies must provide rigorous oversight and transparency to ensure acceptable use. Institutions operating robots capable of deploying force must develop publicly available policies describing in advance the types of circumstances in which robots should be deployed. Every incident of force deployed from a robotic system shall be recorded with audio-video and operational data to be reviewed by an oversight committee.
Axon views the design and implementation of the regulatory, legal and ethical framework of equal importance to the technology development. We have begun and will continue collaboration with various regulatory agencies and legislative bodies to ensure these powerful new capabilities are appropriately regulated and controlled to maximize the life saving potential while minimizing the opportunity for misuse or abuse.
“To make the future different than the past, we must try new approaches. I believe that a remotely operated, non-lethal drone is far safer than sending an armed human being into a volatile setting. I also realize this is a transformative change, and I am committed to listening to concerns and feedback over the next several years as we move through development,” concludes Rick Smith.
The Axon AI Ethics Board has reviewed police use of remotely operated, non-lethal drones, prior to the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. The majority of the board voted to advise Axon not to proceed and plans to issue a report in the Fall of 2022. However, given these tragic mass shootings, Axon has asked the board to re-engage and consider issuing further guidance and feedback on this capability.
Axon’s AI Ethics Board responded:
“Axon’s decision to announce publicly that it is proceeding with developing TASER-equipped drones and robots to be embedded in schools, and operated by someone other than police, gives us considerable pause. It is a notable expansion of what the Board discussed at length…And the surveillance aspect of this proposal is wholly new to us.
We have not had time to review Axon’s current proposal, precisely because of the process the company has pursued. Given the extremely long time horizon identified by the company, announcing this without consulting the Advisory Board was unnecessary.
We think Axon’s decision is deeply regrettable. The Board will continue to discuss this amongst ourselves and decide what course of action makes the most sense.”
Read the Board’s full statement here.
Smith said it was unfortunate that some members “have chosen to withdraw from directly engaging on these issues before we heard or had a chance to address their technical questions.”
He said Axon “will continue to seek diverse perspectives to challenge our thinking and help guide other technology options that we should be considering.”
UPDATE on Monday 6 June
On Monday, nine members of the ethics board, a group of well-respected experts in technology, policing and privacy, announced resignations, saying they had “lost faith in Axon’s ability to be a responsible partner.”
“We wish it had not come to this,” the statement said. “Each of us joined this Board in the belief that we could influence the direction of the company in ways that would help to mitigate the harms that policing technology can sow and better capture any benefits.”
“We tried from the start to get Axon to understand that its customer has to be the community that a policing agency serves, not the policing agency itself,” one of the board’s members, Barry Friedman, a New York University law professor, said in an interview. “It has been a painful struggle to try to change the calculus there.”
Friedman said a major concern was Smith’s decision to move forward with the plan and announce it publicly without adequately hearing the concerns of the board members.
“What’s the emergency? School shootings are a crisis. I agree,” Friedman said. “But Axon, on its own best timeline, isn’t going to come up with anything for a couple of years. Why was it necessary to jump ahead like this?”
“What Rick is suggesting is a necessary public dialogue was really just jumping over the head of the board,” Friedman said.
Sources: Press Release; Twitter; NPR;