TASER Up As Montreal Police Adopts Axon Camera In A Pilot

TASER International Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR) , along with its Canadian subsidiary, Axon Public Safety Canada Inc., announced that a number of Montreal police officers will wear body cameras as part of a nine-month pilot project. The company’s shares rose 0.4% to close at $20.78 yesterday.

This is the first time that the Axon body cameras will be used by Canadian Police force. Under the program, Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) will pilot 50 Axon body-worn cameras on Evidence.com.

Evidence.com, the leading Canada-based digital evidence management solution, is hosted in the country, and all records will remain within the nation’s borders.

The project began on May 18 and will be rolled out in phases. Subway Patrol Officers will be the first to wear the cameras, followed by the Traffic Patrol unit. In the first phase, 20 Metro police officers and 10 traffic patrollers will be provided with the body cameras, while in the next phase, an increased number of devices will be rolled out and access will be extended to officers in other sectors.

During these nine months, law keepers will analyze the efficacy of these cameras in evidence gathering as well as in maintaining transparency with the public.

The agency will also assess potential cost savings related to the servers, their maintenance, IT recruitment, and acquiring and sharing of new tools for evidence management, while testing cloud-hosted data storage.

A final decision on adopting the cameras for use by law enforcement bodies will be taken by next summer, after consulting the public once the project is over.

TASER develops, assembles and markets less lethal, conducted energy weapons primarily for use by the law enforcement and corrections bodies. The advanced TASER Smart Weapon offers improved performance over other options used by law enforcement agencies. It can temporarily incapacitate virtually any individual regardless of pain tolerance, drug use, or body size – factors that often decrease the efficiency of other less lethal options. TASER Smart Weapon also has a comparable or lower injury rate than its competitors.

Demand for TASER’s products and services has seen a meteoric rise following increasing tensions between law-enforcement officials and the public. However, the company has witnessed ups and downs in its business given intensifying competition in the space and cyclical sales of its products.

In Jan 2016, TASER announced that police and law-enforcement departments of various counties in the U.S. have placed numerous orders for its patented Smart Weapons. Notable among the orders were from Bexar County Sheriff's Office, Arlington Police Department, Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Hollywood Police Department, and Texas Department of Public Safety, along with a few international orders.

TASER International currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Alarm.Com Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALRM) , Ascent Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASCMA) and SuperCom Ltd. (NASDAQ:SPCB) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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