SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq:TASR), a leading provider of technology solutions and the market leader in electronic control devices (ECDs), announced that on November 23, 2009, the Prosecuting Attorney cleared a Fort Smith police officer in a deadly officer involved shooting. The incident was captured during a pilot program of the AXON(TM) on-officer tactical computer and audio-video recorder that captures incidents from the officer's perspective. The critical video image was uploaded, securely stored and reviewed by investigators on the EVIDENCE.COM(TM) Software as a Service (SaaS) platform within hours of the event.
The Prosecuting Attorney released his official report yesterday clearing Fort Smith Police Cpl. Brandon Davis from any criminal charges in reference to the Officer Involved Shooting that occurred on November 11, 2009.
"I must also mention my review of the AXON recording of the above detailed event," said Prosecuting Attorney, Daniel Shue. "This new technological tool recorded the entire incident by both audio and video. Though there are several third-party witnesses, as well as the officers' own recollections of some of the events leading up to the weapons discharge, this technology enabled this office to observe what happened with complete objectivity."
"Although the outcome of this incident is tragic, we are proud the AXON video was helpful in the investigation of this event in order to protect the truth of what actually happened," said Tom Smith, chairman and founder of TASER International. "The Fort Smith Police Department is one of the first law enforcement agencies to field test TASER's AXON and EVIDENCE.COM solution. This video clearly demonstrates the power of the AXON on-officer camera and the ability to provide a centralized secure repository and software service to manage, access and view digital evidence. This is a powerful validation of our two-year effort to develop our comprehensive EVIDENCE.COM SaaS solution."
Per a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request, the entire video was released earlier today by the Fort Smith police to each of the area news stations. A KFSM news story can be viewed at: http://tinyurl.com/yhhoomj.
Synopsis of the Officer Involved Shooting:
Officers arrived to investigate a complaint of felony terroristic threatening and assault involving a firearm by the husband to his wife. She met the officers outside and willingly opened the door for the officers to make contact with the husband. Upon opening the door, the officers were met by the husband sitting at the kitchen table holding a pistol and pointing it at them. After telling the husband 9 times to drop the pistol, Cpl. Davis fired twice and struck the husband, who did not survive the incident. The entire incident was caught on Cpl. Davis's AXON system and uploaded to EVIDENCE.COM for secure digital evidence storage and review.
EVIDENCE.COM is a world-class, Web 3.0 cloud computing service providing secure digital video storage and groundbreaking analytic capabilities. It is a full featured SaaS system designed around easy-to-use dashboards that turn geospatial multi-media evidence, such as GPS tagged video, into visual dashboards and analytic maps with seamless click-through to underlying video data. It provides multiple layers of security and access control and a complete set of audit trails. With EVIDENCE.COM, law enforcement agencies now have the ability to show administrators, investigators, attorneys and jurors exactly what the officer saw.
AXON is an on-officer tactical computer and an audio-video recorder that captures incidents from the officer's perspective. The AXON system is designed to enable full audio-video recording from a head camera the size and weight of a standard Bluetooth(R) headset and transfer it securely to EVIDENCE.COM. In addition, AXON has integrated GPS to track location of incidents and to enhance situational awareness and officer safety. To review more details about AXON and EVIDENCE.COM, please visit our website at www.EVIDENCE.COM.
About TASER International, Inc.
TASER International's products Protect Life and Protect Truth. TASER provides advanced Electronic Control Devices (ECDs) and innovative secured digital evidence collection and management solutions for use in the law enforcement, medical, military, corrections, professional security, and personal safety markets. TASER ECDs use proprietary technology to incapacitate dangerous, combative, or high-risk subjects who pose a risk to law enforcement officers, innocent citizens, or themselves in a manner that is generally recognized as a safer alternative to other uses of force. The TASER(R) AXON(TM), a revolutionary on-officer tactical computer and video/audio recorder, combines with an integrated digital multi-media evidence storage and management platform -- EVIDENCE.COM -- to provide an end-to-end solution to capture, store securely, and analyze digital evidence and information in ways that enables tactical and strategic decision making by law enforcement, as well as for legal evidentiary use. For more information please call TASER International at (800) 978-2737 or visit our website at www.TASER.com.
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