Axon Enterprise CEO Rick Smith

October 14, 2019

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About the Guest

Rick Smith

CEO of Axon Enterprise

Rick Smith is the Chief Executive Officer of Axon Enterprise, a pioneer in less-lethal weapons and a global market leader in law enforcement technology. Rick founded the company, formerly known as TASER, in 1993 with the mission of “protecting life.” The company has since expanded its focus from the eponymous electroshock weapon to an ecosystem of integrated hardware and software ranging from body-worn cameras used by the majority of major US police departments to a cloud-based evidence management system. Rick is also the author of the new book, The End of Killing: How Our Newest Technologies Can Solve Humanity's Oldest Problem. Rick graduated from Harvard University with a B.S. in neuroscience, and he received an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Episode Overview

415: Axon CEO Rick Smith shares his entrepreneurship journey and details how Axon has pursued its mission to protect life without taking life. The company began by selling TASERS to consumers as a way to incapacitate a threat without hurting them. However, when that failed to gain traction, the company began selling the weapon to police officers, which was a huge success. Later, the company pivoted to selling body-worn cameras backed by the cloud as a way to protect police officers and increase transparency between law enforcement and the public. We also discuss the future of facial recognition and AI in law enforcement, the Policing Technology Ethics Board the company has developed, Rick’s new book The End of Killing: How Our Newest Technologies Can Solve Humanity’s Oldest Problem, among other topics.

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“We can effectively double the world's police by eliminating 50 percent of their workload. We will do that through a combination of our cloud-connected sensors, our cloud software, and AI.

I have set a goal that in the next 10 years, we will have non-lethal weapons that outperform police handguns. "