Company's move into making police drones could create monopoly, Professor Joh tells Slate

Plans by a maker of law enforcement body and car cameras to produce drones as well could result in a monopoly on police surveillance tools, Professor Elizabeth Joe told Slate.

In early June, Axon, which already makes body and car cameras used by law enforcement, announced it had teamed with drone maker DJI to produce police surveillance drones. The line of drones would be called Axon Air, and the devices linked to Axon’s cloud-based database for law enforcement, Evidence.com, which also processes body-camera data and CCTV footage.

Axon CEO Rick Smith has said the company also is exploring the use of facial recognition technology in its cameras – a prospect some civil rights and technology-privacy advocates find troubling.

Also of concern, as Joh points out to Slate, is how Axon’s one-stop-shop approach to police surveillance technology might create a monopoly.

“There is no real competition from other vendors,” Joh said. “Once a police department has bought into a certain contract with a company, it’s very hard to drop it and move on. There’s a lot of investment in training the agency and the officers how to use it. … The question here is whether we want this kind of tech monopoly at a time when it’s clear that tech monopolies like Facebook haven’t really served the public interest that well.”

Professor Joh's scholarship focuses on criminal procedure and policing, with a special emphasis on DNA evidence, undercover policing, and new surveillance technologies. She is the recipient of King Hall’s 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award.