What astronauts and Axon Week taught me about public safety

While the Artemis II crew was making history above us last week, our Geotab team was on the ground in Nashville for Axon Week 2026, exploring the future of public safety solutions. The two had more in common than you might think.

Looking back at Earth from the far side of the moon, astronaut Christina Koch reflected that from up there, you don't see borders. No jurisdictional lines, no political complexity—just Earth, and the undeniable fact that we are far more alike than we are different. The challenges of keeping communities safe and coordinating responses in real-time are universal; this spirit of unified, borderless innovation was very much alive in Nashville.

A two-year reflection on technology, community and the quiet determination to do good

Phoenix announced the partnership. Nashville showcased the finalized integration

A year ago in Phoenix, Geotab and Axon announced their partnership. Nashville was different. Axon is now offering Geotab’s telematics directly to public safety agencies with seamless integration.

That's a meaningful difference — not just logistically, but in what it represents. From announcement to proven demonstration. A year on, there's real progress to show, conversations to have and a community to be part of. Axon Week 2026 brought together public safety leaders, agency representatives and technology providers from across the world. The sessions were genuinely excellent, and importantly, they weren't sanitized for the audience. They were the kind of deep dives where the hardest questions were met with real, context-driven answers. We moved past 'what' the technology does and got into the 'how' and 'why' of the ethical and operational challenges public safety agencies face daily.

A milestone worth talking about: The Axon Fleet 3 and Geotab integration

The highlight of our booth was undoubtedly the news of our finalized integration between Axon Fleet 3 and Geotab.

Vehicle telematics (engine health, speed, location, braking, event data, collision reconstruction) connects directly with in-car video and the officer providing a complete picture, available when it's needed in Axon Evidence.com. The interest from the frontline and show floor was immediate and genuine.

The best partnerships are formed on the principle that we work — and communicate — behind the scenes to make sure the technology is effortless by the time it reaches the frontline. No extra logins, no extra procurement efforts; just partners working together in the background, making technology and the data work for you.

Next year, when Axon Week becomes Accelerate in Las Vegas, vehicle intelligence is already headlining the program. The Connected Officer and Vehicle represent a digital lifeline, where real-time data transforms a lone responder into a fully supported mobile command center, ensuring they are never truly alone on the frontline.

The tech is ready. The legal framework is still finding its feet

There’s a real asymmetry in our work: Criminals don’t have jurisdictions, but the frontline does. While our public safety teams operate under strict protocol, policy reviews, legal frameworks and procurement rules, the criminal teams they are up against can adapt to new tech instantly and they do. They have no accountability to slow them down.

Naming this imbalance matters. It’s why there is such an urgency to stay one step ahead. The technology is ready, but the legal framework is still finding its feet. The good news is that the right people are having the conversations needed to bridge that gap.

People who've actually done the job

When you're building technology for this market, you need people who have lived the operational reality, not just studied it. Axon has a team of former law enforcement leadership who know what it means when a new system requires three taps instead of one and why an interface will be quietly abandoned within a month. They know the difference between a feature that looks impressive in a demo and one that actually gets used at 2 a.m. in the dark and the rain or mid-call. That kind of knowledge isn't available in a focus group.

Axon has made a serious commitment to embed this knowledge from law enforcement teams who have actually run departments, made decisions under pressure, faced oversight boards, managed shift changes, seen the changing political landscape and understood the toll that frontline policing takes in this day and age.

Let’s be clear: We're not selling. We're consulting

Time at the booth and across the sessions reinforced something I feel strongly about. We are not selling to this public safety market. We are consulting — and there's a massive difference.

Selling assumes you know what someone needs. Consulting means you've done the work to understand what they're actually dealing with. Not every officer is a technology enthusiast. Not every department has an IT team on hand. The assumption that the frontline teams should adapt to technology, rather than the other way around, is exactly where well-intentioned products fall flat.

The goal for Geotab, Axon and the broader vendor community is that technology fits seamlessly into the workplace. That frontline teams barely notice it because it's simply helping them serve their communities better (and stay safer while doing it).

What I'm taking back

The clearest thing I'm bringing home from Nashville is this: the idea of doing good has not been lost. It's as strong as ever.

The leaders running our frontline teams are motivated, clear-eyed and determined to be a steady, reliable force for good — not in spite of how hard the work is, but because of it. They're more aware than most of what's at stake on both sides of every call they respond to.

As public safety partners, we have a duty to be worthy of the trust put in us by the frontline in making a positive impact with technology. We’re not done—in fact, we’re just getting started. If we stay true to the mission, this work will outlast us all. The determination I see on every side of this is incredible, and it proves my favorite saying: where there is a will, there is a way. We have the will; we are building the way.

Next year, Axon Week heads to Las Vegas with a new name: Accelerate.

The pivot reflects our growing momentum, but the core remains unchanged. Amidst the evolving tech, the heart of this industry is still exceptional people doing extraordinary work.

Want to learn how Geotab can help you run a safer, more cost-efficient public safety fleet? Click here.