Fort Worth Police Department trials Axon Citizen

Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) of Texas has begun field trialing of Axon Citizen, a public evidence submission tool.

FWPD, which is a Major Cities Chiefs Police Association member, has become one of several agencies testing the technology.

Over 1,700 officers at FWPD are using the Axon Citizen tool.

This tool enables community members to submit evidence from their smartphones on crimes.

FWPD police chief Joel Fitzgerald said: “We are excited to trial Axon Citizen as we think it will help to significantly decrease the time spent sorting through publicly submitted data.

“Several patrol officers have used the Axon Citizen tool already and, so far, they really like the immediate accessibility provided to citizens to be able to turn in digital evidence.”

Axon Citizen works in two ways — as one-on-one between an officer and the citizen, and as a community-wide broadcast seeking citizens to upload evidence to a public portal.

Axon principal product manager Noah Spitzer-Williams said: “We’re thrilled to see that these agencies recognize the value of working with community members to help solve ongoing investigations more quickly.

“Axon Citizen will help to maximize efficiency for officers by streamlining the process of gathering evidence.”

Several law enforcement agencies began testing Axon Citizen as part of the Axon Insider programme, which enables customers to gain early access to the company’s new products.

Currently the one-on-one tool is available only to Axon Insiders. All customers can avail the tool by the end of this month.

The public portal tool will be tested by insiders starting April and will be available to all customers only later this year.