A US manufacturer of less-lethal weapons and surveillance technology, which are used by the Israeli military and police against Palestinian civilians and by police, prison, immigration, and military agencies in the US and worldwide.
Axon Enterprise Inc, formerly TASER International, is a U.S.-based weapons and technology company headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz.
While best known for its less-lethal TASER brand of stun guns, the company rebranded as Axon in 2017 and has since diversified into a surveillance business. As of 2021, the company offers a range of surveillance tools, software, and services, including:
- Body-worn cameras (“body-cams”), including LTE-enabled cameras equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) capability; in-car cameras (“dash-cams”) equipped with automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology; and camera-mounted drones.
- Axon Evidence - a software used to store, manage, and share data obtained from surveillance cameras, and “citizen-captured” video recordings.
- Training courses on its equipment, including virtual reality (VR) training for police that uses “immersive content” to train officers for “real-world situations.”
Axon primarily sells its products and services to U.S. police departments, prison agencies, immigration authorities, and private security firms. In 2020, the company’s U.S. sales accounted for 79% of its total revenue. Its non-U.S. clients have included police, military, and other government agencies in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, France, India, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, and elsewhere.
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.