Public Safety
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Gov. Bob Ferguson said he would request an expedited emergency declaration from the federal government, seeking to unlock federal resources and financial support, as flooding continues in Western Washington this week. -
When the Eaton Fire broke out in the foothills near Altadena, the Los Angeles County Fire Department did not have access to a satellite-based fire-tracking program regularly used by other agencies.
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Police are harnessing the power of technology to help advance old investigations, and they are currently working to digitize all of their cold cases, hoping to be finished some time in early 2026.
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The Kansas 911 center welcomed a new deployment from RapidDeploy to add to its AT&T NG-911 technology for improved situational awareness and more efficient operations.
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Lawmakers are considering spending $6 million to test the program, which allows paramedics to drive in standard vehicles directly to patients in need of care rather than waiting for ambulances, saving precious time.
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Research finds a correlation between poor air quality from wildfire smoke and visits to the emergency room for heart attacks, particularly pertinent as smoke from Canadian fires blows into the Midwest this week.
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Officials from the Department of Environmental Quality said that they are consistently monitoring air quality, especially during fire season because "the largest impacts to air quality are from wildlife smoke."
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“God has allowed this community to survive without a fully operating hospital and an ER. He has taught us patience, built our stamina to withstand and to believe and trust in new owners to take care of us.”
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The storm included winds up to 90 mph and hail that damaged vehicles and 28 homes were destroyed or had major damage. The National Weather Service said the combination of hail and wind is common to the Midwest.
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The damage in Portage, among the hardest hit areas, was widespread, leaving several businesses inoperable, including a barbershop that was ripped in half. City officials continued to assess the damage on Wednesday.
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The Honolulu Police Department doesn't track how often the 911 system gets overwhelmed enough to play an automated message. But there are times when all of HPD's emergency response operators are assisting callers.
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Deputies were dispatched to try to locate a family in distress. Upon the deputies’ arrival, they could hear a male and female hollering for help.
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Most of the fastest-growing private companies are rated by Demotech, the firm that rated all 12 of the companies that went belly-up recently. Researchers have recently raised red flags about Demotech's ratings.
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One change is that the Forest Service released a plan to expand prescribed fire training and created a western prescribed fire training curriculum, which increases the pace of fire training qualifications.
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The critical incident mapping was developed by U.S. military operations veterans and adopted for use in schools. It provides first responders with a common operating picture, allowing for a more efficient response.
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The Waterford Fire Department in Wisconsin, facing budget cuts, has applied for federal grants to purchase equipment and hire more firefighters. The department needs new breathing apparatuses to replace older ones.
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One training scenario involved a 28-year-old woman who went bicycle riding in the forest with some friends and then became sick and turned around. She had intended to return to her parked car, but she never made it.
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ShotSpotter software might help police get to shootings faster and collect more evidence, but a new study suggests that it doesn’t help reduce crime or shootings, although very few jurisdictions even try to measure its success.
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The Apex Officer Virtual Reality system at the police science program at Hawkeye Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was first used as a firearm training tool but evolved to be a key piece of training for local cadets.
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The law enforcement dispatchers used to sit in a row and now they’re arranged in a circle “so they’re able to communicate better with each other and not over the desks like they used to have to do.”
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The recent storms and flooding prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a disaster declaration for 29 Texas counties, including Galveston, Montgomery and Harris counties, where officials issued a voluntary evacuation order late Tuesday.
