That’s the clarity we design for.

Every day, officers across the country step into roles that demand split-second decisions, deep empathy and relentless courage. The last thing they should have to worry about is whether their tools help or hinder.

When we create, we ask ourselves one simple question: How can we make the right things easier—and the wrong things harder—in public safety?

We innovate with purpose. Our mission is to drive productivity, enhance safety and strengthen impact—all while protecting rights and ensuring accountability. That’s why our tools are designed with intention, built for accountability and tested with the weight of the real world in mind, so our customers can focus on what they signed up to do: protect and serve.

Responsible by design, not just by default

We know technology that serves the public must be shaped by the people it impacts.

Our Community Impact Team works to align innovation with community needs by fostering partnerships and guiding responsible product development that supports a safer, more equitable future. Central to this mission is our collaboration with the Ethics & Equity Advisory Council (EEAC), a diverse group of leaders in racial equity, criminal justice, education, social work, AI ethics and community organizing.

In 2024, we formalized this commitment with the launch of Axon’s Responsible Innovation Framework—a practical, repeatable approach to building products that are ethically grounded, inclusive by design and accountable by default.

Developed in close partnership with the EEAC, the framework provides a shared standard across teams. It brings structure to a space where there are often no easy answers and reinforces our belief that responsibility is a design choice—not an afterthought.

But publishing principles isn’t enough. At Axon, we put them into action. Programs like Ethical Tech Training equip our R&D teams with the mindset and tools to embed ethical thinking into their daily work. In 2024, we hosted a series of trainings on topics including design justice, voice of community and bias in AI. These sessions—led by EEAC members and outside experts, including former public safety leaders and academic researchers—sparked honest, practical conversations about what it means to build for both officers and communities, especially when those needs appear to conflict.

This kind of structure and rigor is already making a difference as new technologies go to market.

Draft One: AI that earns its place in the field

Draft One, Axon’s AI-powered report-writing tool, was created to solve a pressing challenge: officers were spending too much time on paperwork and not enough time serving in the field. But in public safety, every new tool must be designed not just for performance, but for trust.

We didn’t just ask whether AI could help; we asked how to ensure it helped responsibly.

We put our principles into practice from the start. That meant extensive input from the EEAC and our public safety partners, who helped shape everything from product design to policy.

The name “Draft One” was chosen deliberately to clearly communicate that this is a starting point, not a final report. We limited its default use in high-risk incidents such as felonies or arrests, ensuring agencies could roll it out thoughtfully and responsibly. And we backed that with rigorous research, including a racial bias study and a double-blind quality study to assess report clarity, neutrality and completeness.

The result: a tool that’s not only saving officers time, but also putting them back in the field to do their most meaningful work—and doing it in a way that communities can trust.

The EEAC’s involvement doesn’t stop there. In 2024, members were aligned to specific products based on their backgrounds and expertise, joining product teams early in development. Paired with our voice of customer research across law enforcement, federal and enterprise sectors, this approach ensures the needs of those most impacted by our tools are considered from the very beginning.

Responsibility is not a layer. It’s a foundation.

The Responsible Innovation Framework doesn’t live in a slide deck. It shows up in how we train, how we build and how we collaborate.

We look beyond just product development to deepen relationships with community organizations, cities and advocates that can help us create trust to inform not only what we build, but how we build.

In Philadelphia, to expand access to tech careers, we partnered with Techsgiving to grow their workforce development program in collaboration with the local chapter of the National Urban League. We're also working to launch a youth robotics program—further investing in opportunities for young people to explore technology-driven career paths. In Chicago, we continued our partnership with Mothers OnA Mission28, established by the late Bertha Purnell—a founding EEAC member whose legacy continues to shape our work. And nationally, we collaborate with organizations like the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE), the National Urban League, and the African American Mayors Association (AAMA) to share information and gather feedback that helps us design with transparency, equity and purpose. These partnerships are one of the key ways we stay connected to the world our technology moves through.

We don’t avoid hard questions—we build with them in mind.

Looking ahead, we’re scaling responsible innovation the same way we would any product—with structure, ambition and accountability. In 2025, we’re building:

• Systems to track how community input shapes product design

• Toolkits and webinars to help elected officials, oversight bodies and civil rights organizations engage with our technology

• A global adaptation of our community model to ensure cultural relevance across regions

• Deeper partnerships that expand representation in product design and policy

• A new training curriculum that brings responsible innovation into every layer of R&D

Innovating responsible doesn’t slow us down; it scales us up. We’re not interested in easy answers. We’re here to do the work—asking better questions and designing in ways that reflect both the weight and the potential of our mission.

Because protecting life isn’t just what we build for. It’s how we build.

To learn more about Axon’s approach to Innovating Responsibly visit www.axon.com/responsibility and explore our 2024 Responsible Innovation Report.