Taser drone solution to school shootings “crackpot”

Taser developer Axon said this week it is working to build drones armed with the electric stunning weapons that could fly in schools and “help prevent the next Uvalde, Sandy Hook, or Columbine,” but its own technology advisers quickly panned the idea as a dangerous fantasy.

The company which sells Tasers and police body cameras, floated the idea of a new police drone product last year to its artificial intelligence ethics board.

Some of them expressed reservations and did not expect the company’s announcement on Thursday (local time) that it wants to send the Taser-equipped drones into classrooms to prevent mass shootings.

READ MORE: Chief commander had no radio during Uvalde school shooting

Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith said he felt compelled to make the idea public after the mass shooting at Uvalde, Texas elementary school, saying he was “catastrophically disappointed” in the response by police who didn’t move in to kill the suspect for more than an hour.

The product idea had been kicked around at Axon since at least 2019 and over the last year, the company created computer-generated art, a product design, and conducted tests to see if Taser darts could be fired from a flying drone, Smith said.

But he stressed Friday that no product had been launched and any potential launch would be down the road.

The idea, he felt, needed to be shared now because of the public conversation about school safety.

“This is an idea that should get into the public’s consciousness while our minds are open to it and I felt if I wait another six months, the world is going to change and people are going to forget this pain,” he said.

Axon’s stock price rose with the news. But the announcement angered members of the ethics board, some of whom are now likely to quit in protest.

“This particular idea is crackpot,” said Barry Friedman, a New York University law professor who sits on the Axon AI Ethics Board.

He said the Axon ethics board had been debating the idea of developing a Taser-equipped drone for law enforcement, but sending such a drone into classrooms was a “dangerous and fantastical idea.”

“Drones can’t fly through closed doors. The physical properties of the universe still hold. So unless you have a drone in every single classroom in America, which seems insane, the idea just isn’t going to work.”

“We begged the company not to do it,” Friedman said of the company’s announcement.

“It was unnecessary and shameful.”

Board members cobbled together a unanimous statement of concern that described Axon’s decision as “deeply regrettable.”

The company tweeted out the board’s dissent shortly after its own statement Thursday announcement.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were resignations,” said another ethics board member, Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington.

“I think everyone on the board has to make a choice about whether they want to stay involved.”

Friedman and Calo both described this week’s process as a sharp turnaround from the respectful relationship that Axon executives have had with the board.

In recent years Axon decided against using face recognition in its body cameras and automated license plate readers on their advice.

“Sometimes the company takes our advice and sometimes it doesn’t,” Friedman said.

“What’s important is that happens after thoughtful discussion and coordination. That was thrown out the window here.”

Smith said the company is still in the very early phases of product development. but he took issue with the idea that he had ignored the concerns from the ethics board.

Ultimately, the decision still falls to Smith, as the company’s chief executive.

“I have not ignored what they have said. People can have debates and disagree,” Smith said.

“I think there is one thing the world can see: our board is not a whitewash.”

“I hope they don’t resign,” he added.

“I hope that they are somewhat proud maybe after this that we’re having this public debate.”