Montreal police spend $20,000 on Axon bots over 5 months
Montreal police are expanding their use of products from the American tech and weapons company Axon with the purchase of tactical robots, according to an analysis of the city's recent procurement data.
The news follows an IJF investigation into how police departments across the country are contracting with the company, formerly known as Taser, for its high-tech surveillance and digital products.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) contract, dated Aug. 28, details the purchase of a second robot for its tactical intervention unit.
The roughly $8,300 purchase brings the SPVM’s total spending on the technology to over $20,000 in just five months since the first bot was purchased in May.
Sky-Hero, Axon’s robotics line, lists nine products, ranging from tactical ground vehicles and drones to cameras that are designed to “accelerate data acquisition and improve surveillance.” The City of Montreal’s procurement entry only specifies “purchase of a robot,” with no mention of the exact product acquired.
Axon Public Safety Canada is regularly contracted across the country for its energy weapons, such as tasers. In recent years, Canadian police have also been buying the firm’s other products, including body-worn cameras, automated licence plate readers and digital evidence management systems.
Compared to some Canadian police agencies that have contracted Axon for experimental technologies like virtual reality police training and real-time facial recognition, Montreal previously had minimal relations with the company.
Other than its taser guns, the SPVM was a frequent user of only two other Axon products: Axon Investigate, a forensic video analysis tool, and Axon Interview, a cloud-based system for capturing and managing witness and suspect interviews.
Since January, Axon has kept four lobbying registrations active in Quebec, with the latest mandate starting on July 28, weeks after debates over police body-worn cameras renewed across Montreal and the province.
The registrations target different institutions, ranging from municipalities, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Security to the provincial police force Sûreté du Québec, Quebec’s national police academy and the provincial police watchdog, Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI).
Body-worn cameras, which Axon has supplied to police departments across the country, have become a topic of much discussion in Montreal.
In June, the city's police chief announced an investigation into 16 officers who were accused of racist and hateful acts, including allegations that they cut and kept Black citizens’ hair.
The revelations reignited calls for police reform, especially from residents of Montreal-Nord, where the accused officers were stationed and residents have been alleging over-policing for years.
Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who ran on the promise of investing in police body-worn cameras, announced in August that the city will equip 3,500 officers and 600 police vehicles with cameras, with $40 million already set aside for the initiative.
In a pilot program nearly a decade ago, the SPVM outfitted 78 officers with body cameras from Axon for a year, but found that the cameras did not decrease use of force. It’s unclear if Axon will win the SPVM’s body-worn cameras contract again.
Neither Axon nor the SPVM responded to the IJF’s requests for comments in time for publication.
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Ghazal Azizi Kashi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Investigative Journalism Foundation.