Company that provides city police with technology makes stop in Watertown | Jefferson County

The Watertown Police Department hosted Axon on Thursday. Axon set up shop in the parking lot of the Public Safety Building and showcased technology like drones and tasers.

A tractor-trailer contained simulators and a full range for officers to work on their taser shooting.

In the past, Axon used to have separate events during which company representatives would bring their customers lunch and give them some free items as an appreciation event, and then another day they would visit departments and give demonstrations of their equipment.

Last year they decided to combine the two into the road show after a group of interns and college students came up with the idea, and it did well from the get-go.

Now, the Axon team will visit around 85 departments this year along the east coast from Maine to Florida. And at every department it visits, it invites surrounding agencies as well, such as the ones from Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

The tasers that company reps were showing officers are the ones the Watertown department has. They have four cameras and a battery life of roughly 12 hours. Officers can click to activate them, but Axon’s cameras also have a feature in which they will be activated via bluetooth as something of a fail safe. For instance, if an officer turns the safety off on his or her taser, the camera will automatically activate. That’s the same with their in-car camera system Axon was showing officers on Thursday. The cameras, which show a wide view of the front of the car and can read license plates, will automatically activate if, say, the lights are turned on or if it detects a crash.

The event also featured drones of all sizes, from machines that can fly for around 30 minutes to drones that can be in the air for an hour and have cameras that can zoom in for miles. Those drones are often used in search and rescue efforts.

“The first priority is customer appreciation,” said Andy Meaney, team lead of the Axon road show. “It also gives us a chance to show the newest technology. Some agencies may not have the budget for it right now, but at least we’re able to show them that this is out there if you ever want to consider it.”