Rick Smith

I sat down with @friedberg on @theallinpod to talk about where public safety technology is headed.
We talked about drones that reach a scene fast and give officers a clearer picture before they arrive. We talked about taking paperwork off officers' plates so they have more time for the human side of the job, the part that drew so many of them to it. And we talked about the line that matters most: technology can inform a decision, but a person always makes the call.
Technology is never the point on its own. What matters is the outcome. Faster help when someone calls 911, safer conditions for officers, and more trust between police and the communities they serve.
Thanks to David for a thoughtful conversation. Full episode in the comments. 👇

Somewhere tonight, an American is standing watch a long way from home.
For most of us, the risks in the world are something we read about. For them, it's real distance from home, time they won't get back, and no certainty about tomorrow. Yet still they serve.

Veterans Day is Wednesday, but at Axon we're taking today off to honor it early.

To our veterans, and to everyone still standing watch: thank you.

📷Photo by Sgt. Tanangachi Mfuni, U.S. Army.

Axon Body 5 is here. 25x the AI processing power, 20% more battery life, better low-light video. The Pro adds a camera built to scan licenses, so officers keep eyes up and hands free instead of looking down at a notepad.
Safer officer. Better-served community.
axon.com/newsroom/press…

It's hard to watch all the new content people are creating with AI that just became possible this week and not feel that the world has changed. I spent about 30 min writing a prompt and woke up to an incredible 12-minute cinematic experience. Mine isn't ready to share yet, but I found this one particularly beautiful this morning. I hope it brightens your day.

Last week Merck and Moderna reported the first successful Phase 3 trial of a personalized cancer vaccine, built from a patient's own tumor. A real result. Still not approved.

MIT's AI-designed antibiotics have cleared drug-resistant infections in mice. No human has taken one yet.
The discoveries are landing faster than anyone predicted. Getting them to a person is the harder problem.

The CRISPR cure for sickle cell disease was approved almost three years ago. About sixty patients have received it. Sixty thousand are eligible.

Move too fast and you put something into the world before anyone understands what it actually does. Move too carefully and the sixty thousand keep waiting. Neither approach is without cost and risk.

I hear a version of this from every public safety leader I talk to. New technology moves fast. Finding the right pace to bring it to the people it's meant to protect, fast enough to matter, careful enough to trust, is the actual job