AI is coming to your police department--'smile, you're on camera'

Axon maker of Tasers and police body cameras, has acquired a surveillance company that allows police to tap into camera networks in schools, retail stores, and other locations in cities and towns across America and apply AI technology to the footage, reported Vice. The move comes as Axon is trying to expand its cameras into retail and healthcare settings.   

Axon acquired Fusus for an undisclosed sum, according to a news release posted on Thursday. The acquisition “expands and deepens” the companies’ so-called real time capabilities. Fusus operates what it calls “real time crime centers (RTCC)” which allow police and other public agencies to analyze a wide array of video sources at a single point and apply AI that detects objects and people. These centers are reminiscent of the Department of Homeland Security’s Fusion Centers—where intelligence from a diverse number of sources is collected and shared among agencies—and have already expanded to over 250 cities and counties. 

 “With Fusus, hospitals, schools, retail stores, houses of worship, event venues and residential communities—whole cities and towns—are better protected and, importantly, can contribute to greater safety for everyone,” an Axon blog on the Fusus acquisition states. 

Axon entered into a partnership with Fusus in 2022, which the company said would allow footage from Axon body cameras and drones to feed into Fusus’ surveillance systems. Since then, Axon has announced a push to expand its bodycam business into civilian settings. Last week, Axon announced a new line of cameras called Axon Body Workforce designed to be worn by workers in retail and in healthcare. While Axon did not explicitly mention the Workforce line of cameras in its announcement, the company said that the Fusus acquisition directly supports this push. 

“This [Fusus] acquisition also further catalyzes Axon's growing presence in retail, healthcare, private security and the federal space,” Axon’s press release said.

Axon, formerly TASER, Inc., has staked its entire business on body cameras and AI since it rebranded in 2017. Despite pushing the cameras as deterrents, data shows no evidence that they’ve been effective in reducing police violence or increasing transparency. 

The rise of Fusus is concerning to rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has raised alarm over the expansion of law enforcement’s ability to easily surveil Americans. Notably, the concept behind Fusus’ solution is similar to technology that has been deployed in South Africa for years, and which experts have said exacerbates inequality in the country. 

“Axon has been one of the major funders of Fusus for years, and Axon’s more recent body-worn camera models are designed to integrate with the Fusus platform,” EFF Investigative Researcher Beryl Lipton told Motherboard. “This acquisition signals the possibility of even greater expansion of real-time video surveillance and police surveillance in general, as well as Axon’s interest in facilitating local police use of real-time crime center capabilities.”

“Axon has many existing police relationships through its [body-worn camera] and Taser markets, and every city that has an existing contract with Axon should watch out for the attempt to expand the use of surveillance tools in their streets, not only through use of Fusus but through the other tools, like ALPR and drones, which have also been a key part of the Fusus model,” Lipton continued. “Axon and Fusus may be able to expand access to these technologies through contractual amendments rather than through a procurement process with appropriate opportunities for public oversight. Local governments should always be vigilant against allowing the adoption of privacy-invasive data collection and tools, but they must be extra alert now that adoption by bureaucracy, rather than through robust public consideration, is a strong possibility.”

Spokespeople for Axon weren’t immediately available to respond to a request for comment. 

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Police, Tasers and school discipline-a real problem

While some forms of school discipline, like suspensions or referrals to police, are meticulously documented, there isn’t any systematic tracking of how often kids are Tasered at school. Through tracking local news reports on the issue and lawsuits, HuffPost has created its own minimum count.

An investigation by the HuffPost found that children have been Tasered by school cops in at least 143 incidents since September 2011. Rebecca Klein of the HuffPost wrote that they specifically tracked incidents where the cop worked full or part time at the school. Our number represents a bare minimum count, as most of these incidents are likely not reported by local media or subject to litigation. 

Over the past several years, children have been Tasered for a range of behaviors, sometimes merely for childhood misbehaviors like talking back, even as these weapons have the ability to seriously injure or even kill, our investigation found. (A 2017 Reuters investigation uncovered 150 autopsy reports that referenced Taser use as a cause or contributing factor to deaths since the early 2000s, around the country.)

A 15-year-old child with special needs was Tasered in New Mexico earlier this year after mouthing off. (The deputy in this case now faces charges of child abuse.) In 2018, a deputy in Ohio used a Taser to awake a sleeping student. Victims have been as young as 11 years old. Students have been stunned near the heart — despite the high safety risk associated with doing so. 

Tasers in schools have also been used to protect children, deescalating acts of near-fatal violence. In 2016, school cops used a Taser to subdue a student who had stabbed five classmates. On at least several occasions, deputies have successfully used Tasers to protect students from violent intruders.

The number of electroshock weapons in schools has risen in recent decades with the number of cops in schools. 

In 1997, only 10% of schools reported employing a police officer. But after the Columbine shooting in 1999, these numbers started to skyrocket. In the wake of Parkland, these numbers are only poised to increase, with states and the federal government further injecting funding into such positions, a move designed to protect students from active shooters. 

More than half of all public schools employed a sworn law enforcement officer as of the 2017-18 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Of these officers, more than 90% carried a “physical restraint,” like handcuffs or a Taser.  

There’s conflicting research about whether or not cops make schools safer overall. Statistics suggest that their presence can help funnel kids into the criminal justice system for schoolyard misbehaviors, especially students of color. On the other hand, schools with cops are more likely to have emergency safety plans in place. Many districts don’t require these cops to have special training before working with children, meaning they might apply the same tactics in a school hallway as they would on the street. 

“It raises a lot of policy issues about how can school resource officers be safely integrated into school systems and have their role be limited to imminent risk of serious bodily injury,” said Diane Smith Howard, managing attorney for criminal and juvenile justice at the National Disability Rights Network. “When they’re around, they get used for this other stuff.”

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Georgia police tase 87-year-old woman cutting dandelions

When Martha Al-Bishara, 87, went on a walk near her home in Chatsworth, Ga., on Aug. 10,  she was on a quest for dandelions. The stroll would end in her getting stunned by a Taser and arrested by police officers, reports the Washington Post. 

According to The Crime Report, Al-Bishara often ventured outside with a kitchen knife and a plastic bag in hand to cut and collect the plants for cooking. A man called 911, and police found her on a hill holding a “a white plastic bag in her left hand and a steak knife in her right hand.”

It was unclear if the officers realized Al-Bishara did not speak English but when she did not respond to multiple verbal requests to put down her knife, one officer shot his Taser, striking Al-Bishara in the chest and sending her to the ground. She was charged with obstruction of an officer and criminal trespassing. Chatsworth Police Chief Josh Etheridge, who was at the scene, defended his officers’ use of force. “In my opinion, it was the lowest use of force we could have used to simply stop that threat at the time,” Etheridge told the Daily Citizen-News. “And I know everyone is going to say, ‘An 87-year-old woman? How big a threat can she be?’ She still had a knife. … An 87-year-old woman with a knife still has the ability to hurt an officer.”

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Tasers may diminish ability to understand Miranda warnings

People who have been stunned with Tasers may be unable to understand Miranda warnings - and more likely to waive their rights or even give false confessions - according to the Philadelphia Inquirer

The study, the first randomized controlled trial of the weapons outside of manufacturer Taser International, found the 50,000-volt shocks significantly impair brain function in the short term.

"People who have just recently been tased run the risk of talking to police without the benefits of counsel and not understanding the consequences," said Drexel criminology and justice studies Professor Robert Kane. It was published this month in the journal Criminology and Public Policy.

Kane said the study makes the case for a nationwide policy requiring police to wait an hour after using a Taser on a suspect before interrogating him.

Kane, 48, who came to Drexel from Arizona State University in 2012, began the work after he and his colleagues heard about lawyers in the Phoenix area seeking to suppress clients' confessions. Kane collaborated with Arizona State University professors Michael White and Justin Ready on the research.

The lawyers in Arizona were arguing that their clients, having been stunned with Tasers, were unable to "knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily" waive their rights. That's the standard outlined in Miranda v. Arizona, the 1966 Supreme Court decision that held people must be advised of their constitutional rights to silence and to a lawyer before questioning.

With funding from the federal National Institute of Justice, the criminologists recruited 142 healthy individuals, mostly college students, who were willing to be Tasered, all in the interests of science.

Half were shocked; a subgroup underwent physical exertion before the shock, just as a suspect would be likely to have struggled with police.

Individuals who received the jolt performed worse on verbal learning tests and reported difficulty concentrating, elevated anxiety and feeling overwhelmed.

"People who get tased look a lot like 78-year-olds suffering from mild cognitive impairment and, in some cases, even patients with dementia," Kane said. On average, the effects subsided within an hour, though in some cases, it took up to a week.

Bradley Bridge, an assistant defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, said he'd be sharing the research with colleagues.

"This is new, and very troubling. It raises significant problems in terms of how the judicial system would deal with these issues," he said.

It could be grounds to argue that a defendant's waiver of rights was not knowing and voluntary - and that a confession must be thrown out. The question is likely to be litigated, he said.

A spokesman for the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office declined to comment on the potential 

Kane thinks the one-hour waiting period for questioning would be the best practice.

Police might argue that such a rule would prevent them from obtaining timely information, he said. But he dismissed that argument, noting the Supreme Court has already made exceptions to Miranda in cases where an immediate interrogation is necessary to resolve a threat to public safety.

Furthermore, Kane noted, his study might not even give the full picture of how Tasers impact mental function.

"We would expect 'typical' suspects - who may be drunk, high, or mentally ill and in crisis at the time of exposure - to experience even greater impairment," the study authors noted.

The study, which used five-second Taser exposures, also does not explore the effects on people who are Tased multiple times.

That's not uncommon, said David Rudovsky, a civil rights lawyer and University of Pennsylvania law professor.

"Tasers are often overused. People get re-tased, often, several times," he said.

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