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TL;DR: City of Fontana PD entered into a small agreement to try out 5 body cameras and associated Cloud Storage. Contract was for 5 years (for some reason).
by joncrane 7y ago
TL;DR:
City of Fontana PD entered into a small agreement to try out 5 body cameras and associated Cloud Storage. Contract was for 5 years (for some reason). Contract had several convenient ways to terminate it.
After trial, Fontana PD issues an RFP and the winner was a different vendor than the trial.
A few years later, IT department notices bill related to original contract that it realizes is not for anything. They try to terminate the contract, and the account rep for Axon tells them the only termination clause in the contract is for lack of appropriated funds and that terminating under the current conditions would result in the company putting a bad item on the PD's credit report. (This was a lie)
Also, the company used to be called Taser and they were the originators of the famous Taser gun.
Pretty cruddy.
- busterarm 7y agoThe shady Taser story doesn't end there: https://www.businessinsider.com/taser-accused-of-anticompetitive-behavior-patent-infringment-2016-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/taser-accused-of-anticompeti... https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-swift-and-his-electric-rifle-review-2015-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-swift-and-his-electric-r...
- mrguyorama 7y agoDon't forget the fact that it is marketed to police forces (and the training also reflects) as a "Non-lethal" option, while the truth is that it is much more like a less-lethal option. The company behind Taser has worked very hard to bury any research into dangers of their product This leads the police into a false sense of security and they may not realize that tazing someone could kill them, leading them to overuse or overreact in some cases
- busterarm 7y agoWell covered in the documentary mentioned in the second link. I never liked the less-than-lethal term either to be honest. It's still disingenuous. Potentially-lethal or Occasionally-lethal is more accurate and better describes the risks associated with their use.