Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Checks Out Latest Taser Tech and an Evidence Management System
![Sheriff Matt Kendall points the Taser 7 down range trying out Axon's latest taser technology [All pictures taken by Peter Armstrong]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/PRA_8082.jpeg)
Sheriff Matt Kendall points the Taser 7 down range trying out Axon’s latest taser technology [All pictures taken by Peter Armstrong]
In the parking lot of MCSO’s Low Gap office, the company’s demonstration trailer along with multiple pop-ups and lunch by Big Earl’s BBQ provided MCSO an opportunity to see their technology in action and even try their hand at deploying the Taser 7, the company’s latest in taser technology.
MCSO Lieutenant Andy Porter stuns virtual zombies
Law enforcement’s budgets have given rise to a robust crop of private companies looking to sell products and services to police forces. In Mendocino County, public protection accounts for 18.9% of the overall budget, representing $64,737,065 of taxpayer money. This category includes the courts, law enforcement, and corrections. More specifically, the Sheriff’s Office’s yearly budget is approximately $23,000,000. That sort of budget is enticing to entrepreneurs who see profit potential.
Axon Enterprises first gained notoriety for its mainstreaming of Taser technology within law enforcement refining a design developed by a NASA researcher in 1969. The company broke into the police body camera market branding itself as a tool used to enhance transparency. Police agencies throughout the United States have contracted with Axon including the Berkeley Police Department, the Sacramento Police Department, and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Axon has also entered the evidence management system market, providing agencies with Evidence.com, a domain dedicated to warehousing an agency’s evidence and body camera footage.
Touted as an efficient method of storing and maintaining the deluge of data produced by police departments, some privacy advocates have expressed concern public records are stored and maintained within the servers of a private entity.
The sci-fi environment of Axon’s demonstration trailer
We stepped inside Axon’s demonstration trailer and found its design evoking scenes of stormtroopers patrolling the halls of the Death Star. Theresa Wigley, Axon’s roadshow coordinator, told us that was purposeful with Axon’s CEO Rick Smith being a huge Star Wars fan and other sci-fi environments.
Wigley geared us up for an immersive virtual reality experience called “Taser vs. Zombies” created to provide a demonstration of the “immersive nature of the VR.” With zombies lurching toward, users experienced the operational nuances of its Taser technology.
John Tinder showing off the Taser 7’s technologies to the Sheriff Kendall
John Tinder, an Axon Senior Master Instructor, provided a real-life practicum in taser deployment. Tinder travels around the United States providing training and instructor courses on what he calls Conducted Energy Devices (CEW) to law enforcement, military, and civilians Tinder described the tool as an essential component in de-escalation.
Standing on the firing line, Tinder instructed participants through the operational process of safely using the CEW device. After emphasizing the importance of keeping the device pointed down range, Tinder gave the green light to yell “Taser!” and pull the trigger. The probes ejected and immediately connected with the target, along with the sound of the energy being sent to each probe.
Theresa Wigley also provided an overview of Axon’s Evidence.com, a cloud-based evidence management system designed to do the tedious tech work most law enforcement agencies do not have the training nor infrastructure to do efficiently. Using Evidence.com, Wigley explained police body cameras are automatically uploaded to Axon’s servers, protected by heavy encryption, allowing for streamlined management of the hours of data accrued by law enforcement.
![Sheriff Matt Kendall points the Taser 7 down range trying out Axon's latest taser technology [All pictures taken by Peter Armstrong]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/PRA_8094.jpeg)
Sheriff Matt Kendall says taser technology provides an option in between a baton and a firearm.
In terms of Axon’s data management, Sheriff Matt Kendall said the information technology demands of modern law enforcement often get in the way of his deputies doing the work they were trained to do. Instead of dedicating trained law enforcement officers to the tedious demands of data management, data management companies like Axon can provide those services faster, cheaper, and with higher quality.
Sheriff Kendall told us that MCSO currently is in contract with Axon for their taser technologies, some number crunching is in order to determine if his agency is interested in expanding those services. “We have to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze,” Kendall said.
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Everybody needs new equipment that’s great. Yet, I find it slightly alarming that they’re “attacking a zombies as they Lurch forward” to simulate the use of tasers. It seems like some strange subliminal training message to justify ????
Another interesting statement was the comment about the evidence techs and “how police departments don’t have the Manpower nor the training to be able to do such” what??? Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do? Never ever been a problem with a cloud system before… And The Beat Goes On.
Evidence management? What evidence? The money and weed the cops stole? Years ago the small farmers association started a fundraiser to buy body cameras for the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force and the Mendocino County Marijuana Eradication Team.
They refused to take them and wear them.
The sheriff’s don’t have body cameras either.
“The money and weed the cops stole?” Have you any evidence or proof to support your libel?
The Cannabis community knows the truth, the cops will get their bad Karma.
Why did Mendocino county sheriff’s conspire with Rohnert Park Police when they were robbing people in Mendocino County?
You probably shouldn’t be posting on here when you have a police job to do….
You probably shouldn’t be posting on here if you depend on karma from pot growers. I’m not associated with law enforcement. You mention a few bad cops that received discipline, when most are honest and dedicated, to a dangerous and thankless profession.
Karma comes from good or bad deeds, not from pot growers ha ha.
The cops robbed people the bad deeds will catch up with them.
It’s definitely a thankless job to rob people.
Those police officers were disciplined for their bad deeds. How about you?
That’s true. Mendocino county sheriff’s don’t wear body cams. I have a friend that works there and I’m told that no one wants to wear them and the department doesn’t want to buy them either.
MCSO is shopping around for approved body cams for their staff…
Why did they refuse to take the body cameras 8 years ago? So people didn’t see the shady shit they did
You’ll have to ask your “alleged they” that question from 8 years ago but hate on.
Because “They” the MCSO office did not want there to be evidence when they robbed people.
And I will hate on cops participating in criminal activity.
BTW Country Joe it shows you edited Prometheus’ post below. Which means you are posting under two names, The ultimate Troll…….
Another straw man that hates law enforcement. Try to stay focused.
Is there also a fancy trailer for the amelioration of mental health issues and homelessness?
“Law enforcement’s budgets have given rise to a robust crop of private companies looking to sell products and services to police forces. In Mendocino County, public protection accounts for 18.9% of the overall budget, representing $64,737,065 of taxpayer money.”…yeah, great job, guys. Blowing our money and giving us not much. It is a form of fraud Definition of fraud= “a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.” You take all of this money from us by claiming to do your job but you don’t really achieve much in the way of public safety, yet you keep taking huge amounts of our money…
They don’t “claim to do their jobs”…They have an extremely tough vocation and perform their duties well…
No. They don’t. Some of them may be capable and worthy of thanks but as a whole the sheriff’s department is extremely wasteful of our tax dollars. As is the county court system. They aren’t as bad as Humboldt but that does not mean they are good. And the main problem is that people never question their budget increases, their expenditures or efficiency. People like you heap praise upon them and so the shit show continues sucking OUR money down the drain. It’s cool if we don’t agree but you probably won’t change my mind unless you have something concrete to say, an example at least…
People like me and others heap well deserved praise on them because the vast majority of them deserve it. Most anti-Leo’s such as yourself consider anything they do as a shit show or waste of funds, so call a hippie the next time your life is in danger or involved in an accident. Their budget is questioned each and every year.
People like me and others heap well deserved praise on them because the vast majority of them deserve it. Most anti-Leo’s such as yourself consider anything they do as a shit show or waste of funds, so call a hippie the next time your life is in danger or you’re involved in an accident. Their budget is questioned each and every year.
Law enforcement exist because they don’t want citizens handling the bad guys like they used to
Catch and Release is a joke for people who commit violent crime,
Spot on. LEO’s handle the bad guys and gals while protecting and serving our community. We can thank any democrat for the regressive catch and release disaster.
They knew EXACTLYwhat they were signing up for.
Do your job to uphold the constitutional rights of the citizens or go work for spec ops and bleed the citizens with revenue generation.
This whole game is rigged.
Some people have fantastic ideas about how the world works, but in reality we should all know better by now.
Bleed citizens with revenue generation?
according to matt at mendo fever
the annual budget for mendo county is around 350,000,000
350 million dollars
is that correct?
what a travesty that with a 1/3 of a BILLION dollar budget this is the best the clowns running the carnival can do
take you fancy degrees (which you’re still paying for) and consultants and go prey on some other dupes out in the woods and give some common sense people chance to run this county.
sure you think we are just “simple folk”
but id bet the farm that there are plenty of capable people around who could run a tiny ass county of 80,000 people with 1/3 billion dollars
who knows you might even have internet and roads that dont destroy all your vehicles on the way to pay your taxes in ukiah
25 years ago a fiber optic cable was run across the pacific and came to shore in manchester, run though Mendo to sonoma county,
the BOS at that time said no to getting any fiber ports in the county….
genius I say
leave it to mendo (and humboldt too) to consistantly grab defeat from the jaws of victory
So you dislike LEO’s too…
Am I the only one who feels Mendocino officers should begin with a wooden gun at this point.
Good to see evidence management in 2022. Better late than never.
Yeah well I bet much of the cash and drugs still disappear in transit
A plain wooden gun or a rubber band wooden gun? Your choice Knowledge.
Yes you’re the only one…
No they are not the only one. Please tell us a good story about good cops doing good things with our tax money. You seem to be just throwing any critical comment into the “you must hate cops” disclaimer. I do not hate cops. I have a couple cousins who are good cops. I appreciate a good police officer who works hard. But many are not that great and many do not work very hard at all. And some police departments are money suckers. Here’s a great current example- Uvalde, Texas. Or are you also going to defend the highly-trained expensive police officers who hung out in a school corridor while a nut actively shot children because they were waiting for orders from a cowardly chief? They trained for that exact event, blew tons of money on “being prepared” and then sat around in the friggin hallway. Yeah- all cops are great!(extreme sarcasm)
Don’t complain to me. Write a scathing letter to the Uvalde Mayor and Police Chief as I did…If I was there during the massacre, I would have entered the school with my own weapon and silenced the shooter myself. I won’t defend those cowards.
Okay. We agree. We found a point of agreement. I wish I could retract the comment I just made above. I take it back. YOU are not the problem. We have different opinions of our local county police but we can agree on something so I’ll just stop now… I know some good cops. I’m not a cop-hater. They have a tough job. I won’t fight with you about this anymore…
I retracted it for you.
Thank you, Kym! It’s always nice to find a spot of agreement with somebody who you thought you were fighting with…
Spot on.
65 million in just mendocino county for citizen protection. What a waste. All in the name of protection from dishonest citizens. Harsher penalties for crimes equals less crime. Fear is free. Keep criminals in fear. Being civilized with criminals is expensive by giving them room and board. I say the criminals work everyday in jail to pay for their stay by producing medical equipment for children and sick people. Criminals should never get to lay in a bed all day at our expense. Criminals create crime then we pay for them to be punished it makes no sense.
The criminals wear uniforms here
👍
Low ball shot at the police friend!
You are familiar with Ukiah law enforcement, right? In case you’re not, they’ve (UPD, Sheriff and the DA) have behaved so low for so long that no one needs to aim high to take a shot at those corrupt departments.
Justice is being served now…
Really? Justice is being served… Good old boy justice at best. 16 months probation for a cop that raped 1 women and sexually assaulted another 1 plus he robbed an older woman’s home. That’s not justice, that’s the police union hiring his 5 lawyers. Meanwhile the city of Ukiah keeps handing out settlement money to make up for bad police conduct. Where is the justice?
Ask a Mendo Supervisor…
Why don’t you run for sheriff and fix the chaos and crime.
That unfair and a lie…
Sorry but law enforcement is Not for citizen protection , law enforcement is placed in power to protect their laws most of which do not even effect most people on any given day. In fact the ussc has ruled that police are not expected nor are they allowed to act to protect the private citizen. So you have law enforcement which is falsely presenting itself as a line of defense for citizens yet has been told by the highest court no you are not sucking up hundred of millions of dollars all across this country you have lawyers judges releasing hardened criminals that dont seem to mind if something is wrong right mean or illegal and you have people being told sorry we need to ensure those people who still respect the rule of law that they cant have the most effective or even the same weapons to protect themselves as the criminals and the gman enforcers yeah this makes total logical sense . Yet the people pushing this complete load of bullshit brainwashing agendas make it seem that it is all common sense ha! It would seem to most logical persons that these courses of action in fact are the furthest from common sense and one must wonder where these supposed smart persons register on the scale because i am certain my neighbors dog could score higher on a IQ test than most law enforcement officers , but that isnt saying the dog has a high iq required iq for law enforcement is 80 a chimp has a average iq of 85 . Lets give chimps full auto weapons and sit back and see what happens Shall we ? Wait no need to do that again some rebels already did that and the video was posted on the youtube it is worth a chuckle or two if you wish to check it out .
Your not far off. The defund movement was founded based on serious financial discrepancies.
When a small town of 300 in Kentucky I believe it was, had a annual police budget compared to Atlanta.
They tried to justify the budget by being within the radius of a federal highway.
The annual U.S police budget is more than most countries entire GDP.
Every officer needs to have the experience of BEING TASED, before they are allowed to be armed with the device.
They do all or most get tased. I’m not positive though.
LEO’s also use guns. Should they be shot before being armed with one? When Tasers were first introduced to law enforcement back in 1985, it was common to Taser a class volunteer, until someone had a heart attack. Now they fire for only 2 seconds, to prevent injuries. You can always attend a Taser class and volunteer to be Tasered, for the experience.
Oh- somebody had a heart attack? Like what might happen when a cop shoots an unarmed somebody with one because they don’t obey quick enough or “respect authority” enough?
Your post is a farce…
Almost 70 million bucks. Wow. I feel so fucking safe.
All police should wear working body cams that don’t mysteriously fail at times that are convenient to the officer. I’m wondering how that data is transferred to the cloud. If it is through cell towers, that would be a problem in the hilly terrain of NoCal.
Tasers can be a good non-lethal way to disarm a perp. They are also used sometimes by cops to punish and torture.
“They are also used sometimes by cops to punish and torture.” That’s unfair and a lie.
It’s never happened? Are you serious?
How about some proof or evidence of your dream…
Are you saying police have never used a taser to punish or torture?
Perhaps in Mendocino this might hold water.
Nationally speaking, there are thousands of cases, publicly available.
If you truly have any questions about this program, one could simply walk into the police department and ask questions. 80% of the time if they are not busy they will gladly answer questions.
If you can’t get the answers you want, simply fill a FOIA and bring it with you.
Most of not all departments know how to handle a FOIA and do so with respect.
Let’s see proof of your thousands of cases that are available to the public. Otherwise, it’s merely your skewed opinion.
Hardly unfair nor a lie ; several years ago a 85 year old woman was tased to death . Why ? Because she did not want to exit her car to be search as she had a bad leg so the leo decided to tase her to force her to comply where by he took her life . When tasers were first brought into law enforcement they were hailed as a tool to use instead of a gun meaning that it would be used in place of a firearm not as a compliance tool , but as with anything give someone something to save lifes and they will find a way to take more with it
She was 87 and you should study the circumstances…
Aw he totally missed the guy in the black shirt and hit the wall! Would have been a forehead and neck shot too 😆 ⚡️
They had a great deterrent named Sparky. Old Sparky treated many hard cases in San quinton. He’s in a museum now.
The people of CA voted to reinstate capital punishment. King Greasy Gavin told us he would not allow that vote to count… that’s when I began to be suspicious of him
Why can’t we find someone that cares for the environment and us.
Like abortion, Capital punishment should be the last option but available!
Agreed. It should not be used too much but it should be in the tool box for the monsters.
The only way to stop this madness and chaos and enforce our laws is to vote republican across the board in 2022 and 2024 or expect more of the same.
No sir the only way to stop the madness is for everyone to decide we already have enough laws after 200 plus years of new laws being passed every year that we no longer need law makers we no longer wish to have a bloated goverment we no longer want the goverment enforcers roving our streets and neighborhoods armed to the teeth just looking for the chance to enforce their will and show everyone just how powerful they are to encite fear as a warning to anyone else that might be thinking of disputing their power over those of us who do not get on our knees or bend over on command for our masters and their minions
Sorry but I’ll stick with reality…The only way to stop this madness and chaos and enforce our laws is to vote republican across the board in 2022 and 2024 or expect more of the same.
I see your comment, and I raise you the idea that Republicans are just as much the problem ad democratz. We do need to stop funding the United Nations at a cost of 1 trillion a year
Our national debt will be hung around our necks, and our national oil and infrastructure will continue to be used to pay them debts
All the blame goes directly to Biden and his unhinged policies….
San Quentin has always used their gas chamber…
More cops, more weapons…only way to keep hillbillies in line.
Wigley geared us up for an immersive virtual reality experience called “Taser vs. Zombies” created to provide a demonstration of the “immersive nature of the VR.” With zombies lurching toward, users experienced the operational nuances of its Taser technology.
🤔🧐 is that kinda discrimination towed a homeless person cause they look like zombies sometimes … They should have diversity’s in the world of video reality practicing
Agreed. It’s some kind of extremely inappropriate stereotype of “criminals” that justifies the actions. Pretty sick that they laugh about it as they display and show off their wares. One day having a budget crisis and a bunch of other issues, need a new jail building but next day let’s spend a shit ton of money on tasers and a computer system. That’s super smart! So consider the fact that they can’t handle their evidence and they don’t have enough staff to do it. Hmmm what the hell have they been doing “investigating” murder cases or others that require evidence to be stored in the past 50 years if this is the present state of affairs? Just how is a cloud-based evidence intake system going to save the day? Champagne wishes and caviar dreams!