Rick Smith

Brought TASER to life. Built Axon. Now reimagining public safety with AI and ambition. Tech meets impact, at scale.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Today is Juneteenth. On June 19, 1865, a Union general named Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced that the people still enslaved there were free. It came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, because the news and its enforcement reached Texas last. For around a quarter of a million people, that was the day freedom stopped being a promise and became real. Full abolition across the country followed a few months later with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

Even sitting with it, I don't think I could really get there. What must it have been for someone who had known nothing but bondage their whole life, whose parents and grandparents had known the same, to suddenly be free? The end of one of the cruelest institutions in human history, felt not as a date in a textbook but as the moment your own life changed forever. The disbelief, the grief, and the joy all at once.

Today we honor the people who endured it and the freedom they finally won. A day for both celebration and reflection.

Happy Juneteenth.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Buffalo PD is the first major New York agency to fully replace its records system and go live on Axon Records and Standards with National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) built in. While that's the milestone, the people are the real story.

Inspector Mike Palizay and Captain Joe Szafranski put eighteen months into this and got it done. Commissioner Erika Shields is only a few weeks into the job, and she made this a priority from day one, stopping by both yesterday and today to back her team through go-live. We had twelve people on the ground for day one, and one of them sticks around with Buffalo for the next year. Showing up and staying. Proud of our team digging in  to help create such a solid partnership.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

https://t.co/aikYuq65OB

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

We learned on BoldlyGo that solving complex problems is in Amir Elichai's bones. His father spent more than 30 years as one of the engineers behind the Iron Dome — Israel's missile interception system — because defenders need to know where the threat is before they can respond to it.

Amir got robbed at knifepoint on a beach in 2014 and called 911. The dispatcher was flying blind, couldn't see his location, couldn't see what was happening. A modern emergency stifled by hundred-year-old phone call technology.
He built Carbyne to fix that, giving 911 dispatchers real-time location, video, and data the moment someone calls for help.

Now Carbyne joined forces with Axon. Click the link below to hear the full story 👇

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

@SpaceX just went public. One private company now lifts more mass to orbit than Russia, China, Europe, and the US government combined. Look at what happened between 2013 and 2024.

4,400 employees became millionaires today. Welders. Machinists. Cafeteria staff. One welder started at $28/hr in 2015. Didn't even know what SpaceX was. That stake is worth $880K today.
A launch engineer turned down GE, stayed 12 years. At $135/share, his 100,000+ shares = $13.5M. He's 37.
Software IPOs minted millionaires for 30 years.

This is the first one where the money reached the factory floor.

We took the same approach at @axon_enterprise. In 2019, 300+ employees voluntarily converted $75M in guaranteed pay into at-risk equity. Same milestones as my CEO comp. Shared ownership of our successes.

The teams that build things that last are the ones where the risk and the imagination are shared at every level.

What companies have you seen get this right?

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

https://t.co/PEpo10jOmg

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Earlier this year I floated a wild idea: open a company-wide AI competition to every single person at Axon. Find a way to accelerate the business. Winning team gets an exotic trip to celebrate.

248 people showed up. 59 projects came in. $285K in tokens drove an estimated $23M in value created. 4,000+ hours of monthly labor automated. 52 projects now actively being implemented.

The winners: Team Blade Runner from Real Time Operations.

They built a Fusus for deploying Fusus. One clean view of every customer, replacing a dozen scattered systems. Tasks that took an hour now take five minutes. Layers of manual data entry, gone. Customers get to launch faster. Communities get better protection sooner.

We celebrated in Cabo. They chose sport fishing. I tried to keep up and vibe coded a fishing rotation timer so everyone got a fair shot at the rods. We caught 3 huge mahi mahi. Dinner problem solved.

The trip turned into some of the most productive time I've spent this year. I came away understanding challenges this team navigates every day that I simply didn't have visibility into before, and we forged fixes together. That was the benefit I didn't expect.

Congrats to CJ Jones, Kyle Simmons, Eric Maddox, Zack Simmons, Austin Emberlin, John Polydoris.

Felt lucky to spend time with these fun talented teammates, and genuinely proud of their accomplishments.
#ProtectLife

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Nate Harris (Operations Administrator for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections) spent 22 years inside corrections before he ever touched a body-worn camera. Listening to him close out Week of the Customer had me thinking: this is why we build the way we build.

Corrections isn't law enforcement with a different uniform. Two officers managing 140 people in a housing unit is its own discipline, with its own threat geometry, staffing ratios, and training constraints. For a long time, the tech that Corrections received was hand-me-downs, built for someone else. We're changing that. And conversations like Nate's are a big reason why.

What struck me most wasn't the deployment numbers. It was how he thinks about data. Tracking probe counts by facility. Building training around what each institution's numbers actually show. Asking why before drawing conclusions. That's the kind of ground-level experience that should always drive how technology gets designed.

On AI, he put it simply: Make sure the technology has good parents. If it's built carefully, trained on the right inputs, and deployed with the right guardrails, Corrections can make leaps that were never possible before.

That's how we always aim to solve problems. When the people closest to the hardest challenges are pushing us to build smarter, not just faster, we know we're pointed right.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Sgt. Christopher Andreacola of Tucson PD walked us through what case-building actually looks like in 2026 — and I came away more convinced than ever that AI is going to fundamentally change this work for the better.

Digital evidence. Forensic technology. Piecing together complex incidents when the stakes are highest. The work that happens after the call is just as critical as the call itself.

The improvements I'm talking about aren't science fiction. They're about connectivity, efficiency, and giving investigators better tools to do what they already do. Faster evidence processing. Smarter workflows. AI that handles the friction so the detective can focus on the judgment.

I've been early on a few things. LE data migrating to the cloud. Conducted energy weapons filling a vital role in the use-of-force continuum. Body cameras evolving from simple recording devices into platforms for communication, translation, and real-time connectivity in the field… and now into powerful AI nodes on an officer’s chest.

Each time I made the prediction, it seemed crazy.  But in every case, the outcome exceeded what even I expected. That’s what makes these times so exciting, things are moving faster than any of us can predict.

Moments like Axon Customer Week (Day 4 - The Case)  are why I stay close to the people doing the actual work. Sgt. Andreacola didn't describe a future problem. He described today's. And that's exactly where we're focused.

And one more thing: after 39 years of service, Sgt. Andreacola is retiring from Tucson PD — and we're thrilled he's not going far. He's joining Axon as a contractor, bringing that same expertise and dedication into a new chapter. Thirty-nine years of extraordinary service, and still more to give. Congratulations, Chris.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

In the UK, only 4% of officers carry lethal force.

Sergeant Darren Pemble spent 27 years in that system. For Axon Week of the Customer Day 3 (The Encounter), he told our teams what it actually looks like to resolve dangerous encounters when a gun isn't the default option.

A different model, worth understanding

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Major Brian Kitchens hadn't been in Incident Command for five years. His first day back: the 2023 Midtown Atlanta clinic shooting.

Active shooter. Unfolding in real time across a sprawling city.

Today he walked our teams through it. Minute by minute, decision by decision. Real-Time Crime Center operations under live pressure.

Axon Week of the Customer, Day 2. Humbling doesn't begin to cover it.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Axon Week of the Customer, Day 1: The Call

I really enjoyed the fireside chat, as Karima Holmes, VP of Public Safety, Carbyne, Karl Fasold, Executive Director of 911 New Orleans, and Melissa Alterio, Executive Director of the Cobb County Department of Emergency Communications told us what living inside 911 operations actually looks like.

We build the tools, but they carry the weight of the job. Grateful for their service, and for their generosity in sharing their compelling stories today.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Stopped in the Capitol Rotunda before  Memorial Day to admire Trumbull’s painting: Washington resigning his commission to Congress in 1783.

The man who led those who died for the Revolution handed back his sword and went home to his farm. No crown. No throne. Just a republic he helped create, and then refused to rule.

Downstairs in the same building is the crypt they prepared for him. It’s empty. He wouldn’t be buried there either. That was for monarchs.

Two hundred and forty years later, that choice still echoes.

Grateful to Representative David Schweikert @RepDavid for such a meaningful tour. He’s exactly the kind of public servant this place needs more of.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

I spent the week in DC, toured our Capitol, and walked out to this view.

Arlington Cemetery is straight ahead, just beyond the Washington Monument. You can’t see it from here. But it serves as the sacred foundation for everything else, from our grand government buildings to our precious freedoms.

This Memorial Day weekend, I’m humbled by those who gave everything so the rest of us could have something worth protecting.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Axon Week in Nashville. 3,000 people. 30+ years.

I looked out at that crowd and thought: same mission we started with. Wildly different world we’re operating in.

Here’s everything we covered 📺
https://t.co/SLE4BKEh8T

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

10 years ago, @sapinker’s research convinced me violence was in long-term decline… and that technology could push it further. That conviction became “The End of Killing.”

At Axon Week on a stage in front of 3,000 people, I got to tell him so.

His argument, backed by centuries of data: policing reduces violence. In academia, that sentence is still "deeply controversial." In the data, it's uncontroversial. And America, he says, is underpoliced and overincarcerated.

New Boldly Go. 🎧LINK  https://t.co/9kkYcsHw9R

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Records management system transitions are the most universally hated, painful, expensive, and slow projects in all of public safety. Ask any chief. Ask any IT director.

They’ll tell you the same thing: years of delays, blown budgets, frustrated officers, broken promises. It’s the swamp every agency dreads wading through.

So when a 45-year veteran of law enforcement — Chief Dennis Larsen of the @TulsaPolice Department — reaches out unprompted to tell us how easy and fast the Axon Records rollout has been, that stops me in my tracks. Meaningful moments matter.

When a leader with that much experience praises what we’ve built to support the work that protects his community, our entire team feels it. Thank you, Chief Larsen. Thank you, Tulsa PD. And thank you to every customer who has trusted us to walk this road with you.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

What Officer Antonio Richardson did on the Dames Point Bridge is the job at its highest form.

40 minutes. An outstretched hand and a prayer. And a man walked back from the edge.

No tech in the world replaces this. We just want to provide the right tech to give officers the time, info, and backup to be there when it matters.

Grateful for @JSOPIO. If you're struggling, please reach out. Dial 988

[Jax Sheriff's Office @JSOPIO]

Whatever you’re going through, you can get through it.

Those are the words Officer Antonio Richardson shared with a young man on Sunday, April 12. The young man was on top of the Dames Point Bridge, ready to take his own life.

Our District 2 and 6 Patrol officers responded to the bridge and spoke directly to the young man, sharing directly from their hearts. In that moment, our officers weren’t the police. They were just people showing how much they care for another person. Thankfully, the young man decided to take Officer Richardson’s hand and step off the bridge.

We are here for you. We care about you. We do what we do every day because we care about you.

If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, pleas reach out to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. It is a free resource available to you 24/7.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Dispatcher. Officer. Paramedic. Nurse. All heroes in the same chain. But in that last link, 2 nurses are assaulted every hour in the US. That’s a public safety crisis hiding in plain sight. They deserve better, and we haven’t forgotten them. It’s National Nurses Week, thank you for the vital role you play.