TASER International has announced a new pricing model for its Evidence.com cloud storage service. Evidence.com was developed so that TASER Axon on-body video users can easily store, view, and control access to video evidence files.

Originally, Evidence.com was sold on a subscription model; agencies paid a monthly fee per user. That proved to be a problem for law enforcement customers, according to TASER CEO Rick Smith. "The subscription pricing model is the standard approach in the corporate/business space, but it's not how law enforcement agencies budget for and purchase technology today."

In the new pricing model, TASER is including one year of Evidence.com with deployment of the Axon system. After the first year, TASER will work with the agency to establish a pricing model that works with the agency's budget and line items.

Some agencies may decide after the first year of Evidence.com that they want to build their own in-house evidence management system. Smith says any agency that wants to do so can download all of its Evidence.com files at no charge. "Agencies can even send us their hard drives and we'll copy their data for free," he adds.

Agencies that want to continue with Evidence.com over the long term can pay for the service using several options, including software licensing, a per gigabyte storage fee, or a technical support contract. Smith says the new flexible pricing plan was designed to accommodate agencies' line item budgeting. "We work with agencies to understand how they buy and can structure our programs to fit their budgets," he adds.

At presstime 325 agencies were using the Axon-Evidence.com system.