Top US body-camera maker reports record revenue amid Trump immigration crackdown | Technology

USA’s largest body camera manufacturer famous As the Department of Homeland Security prepares to cash in on its investments, its latest financial results, released Tuesday, report record revenue and forecast major growth. planned Rapid acquisition and distribution of these devices across the country.

Body camera maker Axon, which also makes the famous Taser device, announced in Tuesday’s earnings presentation that it beat Wall Street expectations with revenue of $797 million, up 39% year over year.

The company attributed its growth to offerings from its “AI era blueprint,” which includes a voice-activated assistant for body cameras. Managers also summarized:big opportunity” next year to work with federal law enforcement, specifically for body cameras and software licenses for DHS.

When asked by investors about their biggest concern, CEO Rick Smith said: “It’s a misstep on privacy and data handling.”

Without citing specific examples, he said: “We’re seeing these things that are concerning to the public right now. I think we could make a mistake that would have huge negative consequences.”

Data privacy experts fear that body camera footage in DHS’s possession will only be used to further surveil immigrants and protesters rather than ensure accountability for Immigration and Customs (ICE) officers and other federal law enforcement.

Spencer Reynolds, a national security attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, says the expanded use of body cameras “will turn every agent wearing a body camera into a surveillance tool.” What’s more, law enforcement is often selective about which video it releases, and “we’re seeing DHS in particular aggressively releasing propaganda videos,” he says.

Axon dominates the body camera market so much lawsuit filedIn 2023, three cities claimed that the company had unlawfully obtained monopoly power; The case was largely dismissed last year. The Department of Homeland Security already has a $5.1 million The contract with Axon for body cameras and cloud storage licenses began last March.

There is a congress recommended After aggressive lobbying by Axon, it allocated $20 million for body cameras. company spent More More than $1.4 million in the second half of last year advocates for greater use of body cameras, anti-drone equipment and digital evidence management technology.

US Democratic senators from Arizona Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly invoice Last month, it called for making body cameras mandatory for all DHS officers. Gallego has received more than $20,000 in campaign donations from Axon’s CEO and executives since 2017, according to FEC data. He declined to comment. Axon is headquartered in Arizona.

Leading Democrats wide frame Body cameras with guardrails around data access, use, and storage as a way to provide oversight despite surveillance concerns. But current DHS spending proposals, which specify $20 million for body cameras, do not include those protections. Republicans offered They included money for body cameras as part of their talks with Democrats for the DHS spending bill, and some said so not against to their use.

A real-time AI-powered crime hub

Axon was known for making Tasers before making body cameras, and has greatly expanded its product line in recent years. The company is currently positioning itself as a company. Holistic, real-time, AI-powered crime center. During Tuesday’s call, Smith described Axon as “the world’s largest global sensor network,” focusing less on analyzing events after they happen and more on analyzing data in real time to help make decisions.

In practice, this looks like a seamless, AI-powered Axon ecosystem that does it all: quickly transcribe and translate dispatch calls; providing video from automatic license plate readers, drones and public cameras; It hosts footage with a suite of cloud-based products and drafts automated police reports that draw on visual evidence collected at the scene.

“Body cameras are the tip of the iceberg… the real money is in data storage and analytics,” says Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University.

The bulk of Axon’s revenue comes from AI-powered software and the infrastructure needed to host the massive amounts of video its devices collect. The company’s software and services revenue increased 40% to $343 million in the fourth quarter. Given Axon’s broad capabilities in the local law enforcement context, Ferguson worries about who controls body camera footage taken by DHS officers and whether it can be used to spy on people and respond to situations in real time.

Back to facial recognition

As Axon reaches new financial heights, it is also exploring “responsible facial recognition in body-worn cameras.” December blog post by Smith. The company abandoned plans to include this technology in its devices in 2019 due to concerns about bias, accuracy and surveillance. However, Smith stated that they have started a limited program with the Edmonton police in Alberta, saying, “This is not a launch,” adding that “the reality is that facial recognition is already here.”

Federal and local law enforcement’s facial recognition technology has increasingly come under fire for endangering civil liberties. The latest backlash comes over federal immigration officials using apps like Mobile Fortify to scan faces, amid concerns that DHS is building a database of people it considers terrorists; There is a federal agency rejected I’m doing this though video footage of an officer suggesting someone’s presence.

George Washington University’s Ferguson says Axon appeared to be ahead of the pack with its facial recognition research in 2019 before pausing deployment.

“By stopping this, they have allowed other companies that do not have these ethical concerns to get ahead of them and create a competitive advantage,” he says. “There’s no doubt that when they see ICE agents using Mobile Fortify in the wild, they’ll realize that other companies have probably filled the void in some respects… and now they’ve lost market share.”

Emily Tucker, managing director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law Firm, doesn’t believe guardrails can do much to limit DHS’s use of body cameras. The only real way to prevent abuse, he says, would be to ensure the footage is checked by an independent organization “not affiliated in any way with the executive branch” and to ensure the video is not uploaded to “a database of domestic terrorists.” “DHS cannot be trusted to have the data.”

Expanding to include license plate readers

Axon entered the automatic license plate reader market last year, and executives said in Tuesday’s earnings call that they had made “only superficial progress” even though the business did not contribute significantly to the company’s bottom line. License plate readers, especially those from Axon rival Flock Safety, have been the subject of controversy in recent months for helping local and federal law enforcement track immigrants and people seeking abortions. Flock says DHS does not allow him direct access to its systems, but news reports document a loophole: instances where local law enforcement used Flock’s tool to assist federal immigration officials.

Mayor in Denver on Tuesday recommended We replaced Flock’s license plate readers with Axon’s community response that the larger company makes more compelling security and privacy promises.

Axon’s executives see the privacy backlash against Flock as another opportunity. “We hear directly from our customers, some of whom come to us from other vendors, that our track record on privacy and ethics was a deciding factor in their decisions,” Joshua Isner, Axon’s chief operating officer, said on Tuesday’s earnings call.

Activists who have been protesting for months for the city to release the Herd remain skeptical. “It’s not much of an improvement. It’s actually worse,” said Juan Sebastian Pinto, an AI regulatory organizer in Denver who is protesting Flock.