Axon Expands AI and Policing Technology Ethics Board with New Members; Implements Bias Awareness Training

Racial Equity, Criminal Justice and Policing Experts Bring Fresh Insights to the Industry’s First-Of-Its-Kind Ethics Advisory Board

Axon , the global leader in connected public safety technologies, announced the appointment of Mecole Jordan, Executive Director of United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations, Christy Lopez, Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown UniversityLaw Center, and Kathleen O’Toole, Former Seattle Police Chief and Boston Police Commissioner, to Axon’s AI and Policing Technology Ethics Board. Axon also announced that it will host implicit bias awareness training for developers on Axon’s AI Research team on May 8th in Seattle, WA.

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The Board meets twice annually to discuss the ethical implications of AI-powered technologies being developed by Axon. In the first meetings in 2018, the Board recommended that developers of AI technology at Axon undergo similar bias awareness training that police departments across the country are undertaking. In response to this recommendation, Axon has scheduled the full-day “Fair & Impartial Policing: A Science-Based Perspective” training session. This training has been presented to major city police agencies across the country including Los Angeles, Miami-Dade, Boston, Albuquerque and Seattle police departments.

“It is great to see that Axon is committed to developing AI technology with attention to human biases,” says Dr. Lorie Fridell, former Director of Research at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and national expert on biased policing. “This is the first time we’ve worked with a technology company for internal bias training. With the implementation of its ethics advisory board, and now the anti-bias training, Axon is truly taking a leadership role when it comes to responsibly developing this technology.”

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Axon is a network of devices, apps and people that helps public safety personnel become smarter and safer. With a mission of protecting life, our technologies give customers the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe. Our products impact every aspect of a public safety officer’s day-to-day experience.

We work hard for those who put themselves in harm’s way for all of us. To date, there are more than 347,200 software seats booked on the Axon network around the world and more than 212,000 lives and countless dollars have been saved with the Axon network of devices, apps and people.

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