Posted by Peter Holran
Wow — it has been a busy week! In the past two days, TASER International has made two major announcements.
The inner workings of a TASER XREP shell
Yesterday, TASER announced the new handheld multi-shot electronic control device (ECD) called TASER X3™, which will be officially released at the annual TASER Conference on July 27 in Fountain Hills, Ariz. This is the first new handheld ECD since the introduction of the TASER X26 in 2003.
We will be providing 27 features/technological advancements of the TASER X3 over the next 27 days. To follow the X3’s daily technology releases, go to: www.TASERX3.com or follow on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TASERX3 and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TASERX3.
Tuesday, TASER International announced that the TASER® eXtended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP™) shotgun rounds and TASER® X12™ less-lethal shotgun by Mossberg® are now available.
The TASER X12 less-lethal shotgun by Mossberg
The X3 is the culmination of over four years of intense research and development and offers exponentially increased capabilities, including vastly enhanced data, networking, and communication functionality as well as enhanced safety features. TASER has made major investments over the past 24 months to bring a host of new products to market — including the AXON™ Tactical Computer, EVIDENCE.COM™, and the long awaited wireless TASER® XREP™. Our R&D Team has secretly worked on a parallel path to bring the X3 to reality. These innovative developments create an ecosystem of technologies that interface together to provide law enforcement never-before-possible, breakthrough capabilities.
The TASER® product family will provide our customers smarter, safer capabilities to better protect our officers and our communities.
Posted by Steve Tuttle
We have with us today a very special guest blogger. Andrew Hinz, Director of Technical Programs for TASER International and liasion to the medical community, is here to walk us through a few of the most recent studies conducted involving TASER devices.
Today, TASER brand electronic control devices (ECDs) are used by more than 14,000 law enforcement agencies in more than 45 countries worldwide. During the past decade, more than 1.5 million people have been hit with a TASER brand ECD, including an estimated 760,000 people in actual arrest proceedings by law enforcement. While a completely accurate number is hard to come by, it further is estimated that more than 50,000 people have avoided injury or had their lives saved because a TASER brand ECD was available and used by law enforcement.
Despite the broad acceptance and amazing success of the TASER ECDs in reducing injuries and violence, there are still a number of critics and skeptics who are willing to ignore the data, ignore the scientific studies and ignore anecdotal evidence while calling for a moratorium on the use of TASER devices by law enforcement. Most commonly, these naysayers inaccurately site a “lack of independent” scientific and medical studies into the safety of TASER technology and TASER ECDs. Read more…
Posted by Hilary Gibeaut
Today I am in Moundsville, West Virginia, at the Mock Prison Riots, an event that allows emergency response teams to test new technologies available to them before they incorporate them into their response plans. By being able to test these new technologies, such as the ones offered by TASER International, emergency response team members get the opportunity to not only evaluate the products, but also to give valuable feedback to the companies who design the tools they need to safely and effectively do their jobs every day.
Arriving at the West Virginia Penitentiary, site of the Mock Prison Riots
Throughout the four day event, men and women who keep our nation safe are able to deploy emerging technologies during best practice tactical training scenarios. Some of these scenarios include: cell extractions, riot control, hostage rescue, conflict resolution, and both lethal and non-lethal situations.
On Sunday, I joined more than a half dozen other TASER representatives for a day filled with setting up our trade show booth, painting targets and preparing for the upcoming scenarios. I was even able to attend a portion of the skills competition. Read more…
Posted by Hilary Gibeaut
In modern law enforcement, there’s no substitute for knowledge and experience. This Tuesday, April 28 and Wednesday, April 29, more than 130 of the most knowledgeable and experienced law enforcement professionals from some of the largest state and local law enforcement agencies in the country will descend upon Scottsdale, Arizona, to help shape the EVIDENCE.com revolution in secure interactive digital evidence collection and management solutions at the 2009 EVIDENCE.com Technology Summit.
This two day workshop will bring together key thought-leadership from the law enforcement community to explore how rapidly evolving Web 3.0 technologies can be applied to the challenges of secure digital evidence management, analytics, and inter-agency collaboration.
EVIDENCE.com, along with the previously announced TASER® AXON™ on-officer tactical computer, form a major platform computing initiative utilizing advanced Web 3.0 technology to create an integrated end-to-end solution that seamlessly captures, stores securely, and analyzes digital evidence and information in ways never before possible, preserving a pristine evidentiary chain of custody from the time the evidence was captured all the way through the judicial process. In effect, EVIDENCE.com is bringing Software as a Service (SaaS) for the first time to main street, public safety and law enforcement.
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Posted by Rick Smith
“Challenging times favor the strong and bold. Our company’s financial condition is, indeed, strong. Our ideas and our people are innovative, and our thinking is bold.”
Yesterday, TASER International reported earnings for first quarter 2009. While I’m proud of many accomplishments this past quarter, the announcement of EVIDENCE.com stands out as a significant milestone in the evolution of the company. TASER International is now primed to provide a complete solution set to law enforcement’s most challenging problems.
Out in the streets, when lives are at stake, our family of TASER® ECDs provides the safest, most effective option for officers to respond to resistance. The TASER® AXON™ Tactical Computer, which was announced last summer, will streamline the collection and analysis of evidence, preserving an audio/video record from the officer’s perspective of what really happened during all incidents — from traffic stops to the most contentious and dangerous confrontations.
EVIDENCE.com will provide secure storage and groundbreaking analytic capability for digital information and evidence while preserving a pristine evidentiary chain of custody from time the evidence was captured all the way through the judicial process, until the last gavel drops. We are building this capability, through EVIDENCE.com, in a way that lays the foundation for a global, secure network for the law enforcement community.
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Posted by Steve Tuttle
This morning I headed to Minnesota to participate in our TASER® Use of Force, Risk Management and Legal Strategies Seminar. Normally, TASER International participates in approximately six of these educational courses around the country annually. The “Chiefs Course,” as they are commonly known, are designed to give law enforcement command staff, municipal risk managers, and Police Information Officers the opportunity to learn about legal issues, risk management challenges, and media relations strategies pertaining to the implementation of a TASER device program.
Generally, each Chiefs Course includes the following components, although the presenters vary depending on region and availability: an update on legal issues pertaining to the use of TASER devices, an update on the latest medical research on TASER technology, a session on media relations and data tracking, a discussion on the potential civil rights issues surrounding the deployment of TASER devices, and an update on suggested training requirement for TASER devices.
As Vice President of Communications at TASER for 15 years, I know a thing or two about TASER and TASER devices, but each time I present at one of these courses, I am humbled by my co-presenters and honored to be speaking from the same podium.
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