A US manufacturer of Tasers and other less-lethal weapons, used by the Israeli military and police and by US law and immigration enforcement authorities.
Axon Enterprise Inc is a U.S.-based weapons and technology company headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Formerly named TASER International, it is best known for its less-lethal TASER brand of electric stun guns. The company rebranded in 2017 and became a more diverse law enforcement technology business, offering a range of surveillance tools, including police body-worn cameras (“body-cams”), in-car cameras (“dash-cams”), camera-mounted drones, virtual reality police training tools, and more.
The Israeli military started deploying Taser guns to some of its special units in 2009. It became one of the weapons of choice the Israeli Navy uses in its attacks on Freedom Flotilla activists that try to break the illegal siege on the Gaza Strip. Tasers were documented used, for example, in Israel’s 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara, its 2012 raid on the Estelle, its 2015 raid on the Marianne, and its 2018 raid on the Al Awda.
During Israel’s 2023-2025 genocidal war on Gaza, Israeli soldiers have used Taser guns against Palestinians they have detained. According to B’Tselem, Israeli soldiers routinely used Tasers, among other weapons, to inflict excessive pain on detained Palestinians. In one high-profile case, in July 2024, Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted a Palestinian imprisoned at the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp and, according to their indictment, “used a taser gun on him, including on his head.”
The Israel Police has also been using Tasers since 2009, disproportionately against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory and Palestinian citizens of Israel. The Israel Police has been using Tasers in its operations in the occupied West Bank, including by the Israel Border Police (Magav), the police military unit, which is notorious for decades for its systemic use of excessive force against Palestinians. High-profile cases of violent use of Tasers by the Israel Police against Palestinians, including children, have been reported for example in 2012, 2013, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The initial model used by the Israel Police was the Advanced Taser M26 gun, and it was gradually replaced by the newer Taser X26P. A 2023 public tender for the purchase of additional “electric control devices” disclosed that the Israel Police acquired some 1,800 Taser X26P guns between 2016-2023. While the weapon selected in the new tender process was not publicly disclosed, the company that won the tender, M.R.Hunter Ltd, is the exclusive authorized dealer of Taser guns in Israel. It is the same company that had provided the Israel Police with cartridges and batteries for its existing Tasers.
The Israel Prison Service has also been using Taser guns, including against Palestinian political prisoners. Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, which controls Israel’s international border crossings, acquired 50 Taser X26 guns in 2011. That purchase was from Taser’s previous Israeli authorized dealer, a company named Contact International, which operates out of an illegal settlement industrial zone.
Other than Tasers, which are imported to Israel only for the use of government agencies, Axon has minor other business in Israel. In 2025, it brought to Israel for the first time its Axon Tech Summit, a traveling marketing expo designed to increase its presence in specific locations.
In 2020, Axon hired an Israel Country Manager, however he left this position in 2022 and it is unclear if someone else was hired to replace him. In its 2020 annual report, Axon also included Israel in a list of the countries where it sources components for its products. It is unclear what components Axon sourced from Israel, and Israel was not named in Axon’s subsequent reports.
In 2016, the Israel Police used Axon body-worn cameras in a pilot project on integrating body-cams into its work. It rented 150 Axon Body 2 cameras from Mer Group, Axon’s body-cam distributor in Israel. While the pilot was successful, the Israel Police ultimately chose body-cams made by Taiwanese company Getac.
US Immigration Enforcement
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) routinely use Axon weapons and technology in surveilling, arresting, and deporting immigrants. Between 2003 and September 2024, CBP and ICE awarded Axon contracts worth over $96 million for TASERs, body-worn cameras, and related accessories and software.
CBP and ICE routinely use tasers as “instruments of excessive force.” Immigration authorities have used these weapons, for example, to fire at “people who were running away” or attempting to “climb over the border fence back into Mexico,” even though there was “no struggle or clear indication that agents were in danger.” In other cases, CBP has used tasers to shock people while handcuffed, sometimes resulting in serious injuries and even death.
CBP and ICE’s widespread use of tasers is a reversal of previous policy prohibiting the use of the weapons. In 2005, it was revealed that the agencies had rejected arming their officers with tasers in 2003 due to concerns that exposure to the devices’ electrical discharges can impair breathing and respiration, cause delirium, and result in death or potentially fatal health risks. Since then, these prohibitions have been quietly relaxed, and the use of the weapon is now expressly permitted by both CBP’s and ICE’s use-of-force policies.
Axon TASERs have also been used to aid specifically in deportations. The agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, for example, purchased $2.6 million worth of Axon TASERs between 2020 and 2021 alone. During deportation flights, ICE agents have subdued individuals by restraining them using the WRAP and shocking them with tasers.
In addition to Axon TASERs, U.S. immigration authorities use the company's cameras and accompanying software to surveil immigrants. In June 2024, for example, CBP awarded Axon a contract worth a potential $7.7 million for its Incident-Drive Video Recording System (IDVRS) body-worn cameras. CBP has stated that IDVRS will be used to record audio and video of “enforcement-related” encounters in public areas and that these recordings “may result in the capture of individuals besides those who are the focus” of the encounters. According to the agency, these recordings will be used as supplemental evidence in criminal cases and will increase the likelihood of convictions.
US Prisons and Police
Axon markets its weapons and related products to prison and police agencies throughout the U.S. As of September 2024, the company’s weapons and/or “safety and security equipment” have been purchased or trialed by prison agencies in at least 29 U.S. states and by police agencies in all 50 states.
Despite Axon marketing its TASERs as “less-lethal” weapons, police and prison officers routinely misuse tasers, using them not as alternatives to guns, but as tools for punishing people. According to investigations, TASER usage by police and prison officers has resulted in hundreds of deaths. In 2017, the U.N. Special Rapportuer on Torture charged that U.S. jail officials had violated the U.N.’s prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment by using tasers on incarcerated individuals to inflict “severe pain and suffering.” Amnesty International has similarly stated that U.S. prison and jail officers’ use of tasers against vulnerable groups—individuals experiencing mental illness, children, disabled people, and those who are pregnant—has constituted excessive force in violation of international standards.
In addition to TASERs, Axon supplies prison and police agencies with body-worn cameras. Since acquiring its main competitor, VIEVU, in 2018, the company controls more than 80% of the police body camera market. It has also boasted that its Body 2 camera “has been deployed by more major cities than any other police body camera.”
While prison and police agencies have claimed that these cameras increase safety and provide transparency in cases of officer misconduct, studies have repeatedly found body cameras to have a statistically insignificant effect on the use of force. According to company CEO Patrick Smith, Axon body cameras are in fact used to “help protect police” from being sued or accused by the media of “acting badly towards people” for using TASERs. Rather than demonstrating how video recordings of officer interactions might increase community safety, Axon executives have stated that recordings can be shown to people to “prove why they [police officers] did what they did.” Additionally, research suggests that people may be deterred from reporting misconduct when they realize they are being recorded; that high levels of officer discretion in turning cameras on or off leads to increased use of force; and that body cameras are often turned against the public.
Axon also sells autonomous drones to police departments. In 2018, for example, the company partnered with technology company DJI to sell DJI’s video-capable drones to police officers through its new Axon Air program. Since then, it has partnered with private drone manufacturing company Skydio to become the exclusive provider of Skydio drones to law enforcement and police agencies, and with drone management software company DroneSense to provide police agencies with drone software including piloting, administration, evidence management, and live streaming.
In 2018, California’s Chula Vista Police Department became the first in the country to join a partnership between Axon and Skydio. The department launched more than 4,100 flights as part of its Drone as First Responder program between 2018 and 2020. According to the ACLU, there is strong potential for these devices to be used as tools of mass surveillance—for targeting and harassing community members, such as unhoused individuals, or to “strictly enforce laws that are out of step with social norms.” In border towns like Chula Vista, advocates and organizers worry that these drones will be used to surveil immigrants and that footage will be shared with federal immigration authorities.