SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- TASER International (NASDAQ: TASR), the global leader in cloud-based digital evidence management and body-worn video, today announced the second annual RISE Award winners in partnership with PoliceOne.com. The RISE Awards seek to honor those in law enforcement and in communities who save lives, lead by example, and find innovative solutions to pressing problems. The winners are as follows:

• Agency of the Year: Redlands Police Department in Redlands, CA
• Protect Life: Corporal Les Munn - Texarkana Police Department in Texarkana, AR
• Law Enforcement Leadership: Sergeant Felicia Pecora – Tampa Police Department in Tampa, FL
• Community Leadership:
  • Ada T Payne Friends of the Urban Libraries: Tampa, Florida
  • Blue Line K9 Foundation: Glendale, AZ
  • Prescott Valley Police Foundation for the Yavapai County Coordinated Community Response Team: Prescott Valley, AZ

Winners were chosen from more than 200 nominees and represent an ideal of policing to which officers and agencies across the country can aspire. Law enforcement winners will each receive a $5,000 Axon technology grant to be put towards Axon body cameras or EVIDENCE.com, a one year subscription to PoliceOnce Academy, and VIP tickets to this year's IACP conference in Chicago. Community Leadership winners will each receive a $5,000 community-building donation.

"The RISE Awards were created to recognize the everyday heroes who rise to the challenges of serving our communities with courage and strength every day," said Rick Smith, Founder and CEO of TASER. "This year's awards yielded stories of unparalleled valor and professionalism and put a spotlight on the way community organizations play an important role in fulfilling the mission of building safer communities."

About the Winners

Corporal Les Munn earned the Protect Life Award for risking his own safety, on more than one occasion, to save the life of a community member. On January 15th 2014 Cpl. Munn used his training as an Emergency Medical Technician to keep the victim of a recent shooting alive despite heavy bleeding and a collapsed lung until the Life Net arrived. A second occasion for heroism arose in March of that year, in which Munn, responding to a vehicle crash, aided the breathing of a badly injured man trapped in his vehicle, thereby saving his life. 

Sergeant Felicia Pecora earned the Law Enforcement Leadership award for demonstrating extraordinary leadership in her community. Having noticed a significant spike in violent and gang-related crime in her area, Pecora sought out its root causes. When she found that many of the effected areas were plagued with substandard school systems, she worked in tandem with the local library to offer resources for school children to remedy and reverse the ill-effects of a poor education. 

The Redlands Police Department earned the Agency of the Year award for implementing creative, technological solutions to significant law-enforcement problems. In a year that saw both a dramatic reduction in the force's budget and a dramatic uptick in crime (particularly vehicle break-ins), RPD undertook a new program whereby they planted laptops equipped with GPS tracking devices in unattended vehicles. Once successful arrests for vehicle break-ins became more common (thanks to the tracking devices), the program acted as a sufficient deterrent to reduce break-ins by nearly 20% over the course of three years.

Blue Line K9 Foundation, founded by Officer Wes Zygmont after an incident in which he was badly injured and his canine partner was killed, earned a Community Leadership award for providing assistance to police K9 handlers and their families in the event of a fallen or injured K9 or K9 handler in the line of duty. Blue Line K9 also provides financial assistance to handlers to cover or offset the costs of K9 training and equipment.

The Prescott Valley Police Foundation earned a Community Leadership award for their commitment to ending domestic violence and supporting victims of crimes in their community through the work of their Yavapai County Coordinated Community Response Team. By hosting a number of events each year, they are able to act as a resource for victims and the community at large.

Ada T Payne Friends of the Urban Libraries earned a Community Leadership award by working with libraries and law enforcement alike to provide mentorship and education for urban students whose schools may be failing. By offering a six-week reading, science, and art course as well as hands-on mentorship by police officers, they have taken great strides toward promoting literacy and education among at-risk children.

About TASER International, Inc.

TASER International makes communities safer with innovative public safety technologies. Founded in 1993, TASER first transformed law enforcement with its electrical weapons. TASER continues to define smarter policing with its growing suite of technology solutions, including AXON body-worn video cameras and EVIDENCE.com, a secure digital evidence management platform. More than 149,000 lives and countless dollars have been saved with TASER's products and services.

Learn more at http://www.TASER.com and http://www.EVIDENCE.com or by calling (800) 978-2737.

TASER® is a registered trademark of TASER International, Inc., registered in the U.S. All rights reserved. TASER logo, AXON are trademarks of TASER International, Inc.

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CONTACT:
Sydney Siegmeth
PR Director
EVIDENCE.com 
Press@TASER.com

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