.n December, police in Fruitland, Maryland, responded to a report of a man in distress. They’d had to deal with him before: His seizures caused him to become violent with his family. Rather than reaching for a Taser or using physical force, they turned to a device called Bola Wrap. When the officer fired, a Kevlar rope exploded from his hand like a web from Spider-Man's wrist and wrapped itself around the target’s arms.
Rick Smith, the 50-year-old chief executive officer of Taser’s $10 billion parent company Axon, says his older brother’s product is definitely competition. “With my brother over there, we've just kind of agreed not to talk work,’’ says Rick. Tom and Wrap aren’t yet close to those kinds of numbers. Wrap reported revenue of just $4 million and a $12.5 million loss last year. Tom, who had more than 220,000 shares as of his last Taser filing in November 2011, sold them all when he left in 2013. . He has stock options but no shares in Wrap, which is worth just under $200 million.he brothers grew up under the influence of their father’s entrepreneurial ambitions. “We were pretty competitive brothers growing up.
When he was out on the road demonstrating and selling the Taser, Tom recalls, one request he kept hearing from police was the need for a non-lethal that didn't inflict pain, as the Taser does. The first time he saw Bola Wrap in action in early 2019, he believed it was the answer.
Some in law enforcement have doubts about Bola Wrap. A group from Toronto’s Police Department recently took a trip to Arizona to test out the tech. “In scenarios where people are running or walking or erratically moving, to be able to wrap both legs with a good wrap the first time is a bit difficult,” says superintendent Kim O’Toole. “I think they have some work to go.”
More good news please(((