Axon Enterprise

In 1969, NASA researcher Jack Cover began to develop a non-lethal electric weapon to help police officers control suspects, as an alternative to firearms. By 1974, Cover had completed the device, which he named the Tom Swift Electric Rifle (TSER), referencing the 1911 novel Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle. Cover later added an A to the acronym to form TASER. The Taser Public Defender used gunpowder as its propellant, which led the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to classify it as a firearm in 1976, a decision that limited sales. Cover's company, Taser Systems Inc., collapsed due to low sales.

In 1993, Rick and Tom Smith (CEO Set Jet) formed AIR TASER, Inc. to, with Cover, design a version of the device that would use compressed nitrogen instead of gunpowder as a propellant. During development, the company faced competition from another vendor, Tasertron, whose product had become associated with its alleged ineffectiveness during the police confrontation of Rodney King.

After nearly going bankrupt marketing other products such as an electroshock-based anti-theft system for automobiles known as "Auto Taser" in 1997, the company, later renamed TASER International, introduced its TASER M26 weapon in 1999. In 2001, TASER International had an initial public offering with a $6.8 million deficit; its first ticker symbol was "TASR". The company began offering to pay police officers to train others on how to use their products. This marketing technique helped enhance the company's market share, reaching $24.5 million in net sales by 2003, and nearly $68 million in 2004.

TASER International acquired Tasertron. Patent lawsuits by TASER International led to the shutdown of Stinger Systems and its successor company, Karbon Arms; Robert Gruder founded both companies. Despite the controversies that have centered around the products (including deaths attributed to taser usage), the company maintained its dominant market position. TASER paid millions in settlements for the death of suspects who had been tased.

Pivot to bodycams and law enforcement technology

In 2005, TASER International began to offer an accessory for its taser products, TASER Cam, which added a grip-mounted camera that activated automatically when the safety was disengaged. By October 2010, at least 45,000 TASER Cams had been sold.

In 2008, the company unveiled its first body-worn camera, the Axon Pro. It was designed to be head-mounted, and upload footage for online storage on a web-based service known as Evidence.com. TASER's CEO Rick Smith explained that the products were designed to "help provide revolutionary digital evidence collection, storage and retrieval for law enforcement". The company piloted Axon Pro in various small cities and towns. In 2009, after prosecutor Daniel Shue exonerated Fort Smith police officer Brandon Davis based on footage from an Axon Pro camera, both Davis and Shue began to provide testimonials for the product in its marketing.

Especially in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting, the company's body-worn camera business saw significant growth. Smith argued that the company was "not just about weapons, but about providing transparency and solving related data problems." In April 2013, the Rialto Police Department released the results of a 12-month study on the impact of on-officer video using Axon Flex cameras. The study found an 88% drop in complaints filed against officers and nearly a 60% reduction in officer use-of-force incidents.

TASER opened an office in Seattle in 2013, and a foreign office in Amsterdam, Netherlands in May 2014. In June 2015, the company announced the formation of a new Seattle-based division known as Axon, which would encompass the company's technology businesses, including body-worn cameras, digital evidence management, and analytics. Rick Smith explained that the branch was inspired by Microsoft's use of the Xbox brand to branch into entertainment businesses, stating that "Axon was the name that we used for selling cameras historically, but we realized that brand had the room to grow and encompass all of our connected technologies." The Taser brand would still be used for the company's weapons products.

Body-worn cameras

Taser's original body-worn camera, the Axon Pro, was introduced in 2009. The camera consists of three components, a head-mounted camera, a controller, and a monitor to review video recordings.

In addition to body-worn cameras, Axon also offers interview room and in-car video systems, known as Axon Interview and Axon Fleet respectively. These systems, like the body-worn cameras, integrate with the Evidence.com service.

Automated License Plate Readers

In April 2025, Axon announced it would begin offering pole-mounted automated license-plate reader (ALPR) systems, as well as a method for retrofitting streetlights with similar technology.

Following backlash to ALPRs produced by Flock Safety, some cities in the United States (such as Denver) have opted to cancel their contracts with Flock and opt for Axon manufactured ALPRs.

Incidents and concerns

Axon has been identified as a chief proponent of the controversial diagnosis of excited delirium for the panicked stages of hypoxia, a cause of death that is seen only in people restrained by law enforcement, often after having been Tasered, and is widely thought to be a cover for positional asphyxia.

The company has noted that it has lost two product liability lawsuits:

This lawsuit represents the fifty-ninth (59th) wrongful death or injury lawsuit that has been dismissed or judgment entered in favor of TASER International. This number includes a small number of police officer training injury lawsuits that were settled and dismissed in cases where the settlement economics to TASER International were significantly less than the cost of litigation. One of these cases is that on Feb. 15, 2006, one officer Officer accidentally discharged TASER device on his daughter. TASER International has lost two product liability lawsuits.

On June 6, 2008, the company lost its first product-liability suit. The damages were reduced in the Court of Appeals in 2011.

TASER lost its second product liability suit.

In 2007, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekański died in custody at the Vancouver International Airport after Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers used a Taser on him multiple times. A provincial inquiry found the use to be unjustified, and in 2013, the British Columbia Coroners Service ruled the death to be a homicide—citing a heart attack caused by the repeated jolts as cause of death. The incident provoked inquiries into law enforcement taser use in Canada.