Ho (Axon Enterprise): "The main challenge in adopting Axon devices is overcoming bias against their electrical nature compared to traditional weapons"

What operational evidence supports the use of Axon technologies in improving the safety of field operators?

"I would say that the operational evidence is the data that we have gathered over 25 years. My team and I have personally studied these devices. We've done it in the lab on both humans and in animal models, in multiple different situations and scenarios. We have a large amount of human data and animal data gathered over 25 years; we've always published that through the peer review medical process: all of our work is available in the public domain. If anyone is interested in learning more about that, they should go and pull those papers and read through them to see what our studies, how they were done, what the conclusions are, and that will give them an idea of all of the operational evidence that leads us to safety".

What do you see as the specific opportunities and limitations for Italy in implementing Axon solutions?

"I am at an advantage to answer that question because 25 years ago, as we were introducing this technology into the United States, we had very similar types of interactions with both the public, the media and law enforcement. I have seen all of the criticisms that have come from those types of things, and we've actually looked at those very hard and tried to address them in all of the research that we have done. I think probably the biggest hurdle is that some people will come to judgment of these weapons, based on the fact that they are electrical based and not traditional physiology based, like other uses of force.

For instance, if you look at a police baton, or what you call a truncheon here, people intuitively understand what happens if I hit you with that. People don't intuitively understand what happens when I expose you to electricity: when I say expose you to electricity, there are varying amounts of electricity you can be exposed to, and people automatically think of electricity as something that is very, very harmful because they are taught from a very young age that putting your finger into the electrical outlet is dangerous, or touching the overhead wires or getting struck by lightning is dangerous.

You have to remember that these devices are powered by camera sized batteries, so they are not capable of delivering that kind of charge to a human. But I think that most people don't fully understand that, and they don't make the logical conclusion with that. And so that's the type of sentiment that you will have to overcome with laypersons, the community, those who are concerned that the police may have too many powers; even media that may not understand it fully, they have to portray it fairly. Everything has to be taken in context".