First Responders

The company gets real-time data to officers so they can have a fuller understanding of emergency calls and the people involved. ForceMetrics last year became part of an Amazon gov tech innovation push.

Next-generation 911 with the resilience of a modern, digital, Internet protocol-based network was essential to North Carolina’s storm response. It enabled officials to answer nearly 90,000 emergency calls in three days.

The Montgomery County Attorney's Office has said it supports law enforcement in keeping parts of vehicle chase policies confidential, after a pursuit ended in a head-on collision. The incident occurred in early October.

The northern San Diego suburb has opened a new fire station more than a decade in the making, which will house the city’s first electric fire engine. The engine and infrastructure cost around $2.7 million.

The public safety tech firm, which sells license plate readers and other tools, has bought Aerodome, which specializes in making drones useful for law enforcement. Flock Safety has big drone plans for the upcoming year.

The Future Fire Academy equips participants with accredited training in numerous aspects of fighting wildfires, and then upon release, formerly incarcerated people also receive help applying for jobs.

As public safety technology embraces cameras, software and other tools, Veritone is integrating more data from partners into its evidence management “central hub.” The move follows a recent product expansion deal.

Customers of Midwest Public Safety will now have access to products from Veritone. The public safety tech supplier sells digital evidence management and other tools powered by AI and used by some 3,500 clients.

As emergency dispatch centers transition to the mobile age, massive venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is betting that Prepared can help lead the public safety pack. The company’s CEO talks more about his new funding round.

The event at Albany State University offered police officers, communications officers, firefighters, paramedics and other emergency personnel a chance to discover what resources are available to deal with job stress.

The city plans to use $75,000 from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to launch its new service that aims to expand the work of EMS responders so they can provide more care and reduce patient hospital visits.

Mayor London Breed announced the first three cameras will be deployed to monitor high-crime zones when police officers can't. The city also recently rolled out police-operated drones and automated license plate readers.

Researchers at the University of Montana found a correlation between rising temperatures and increased 911 calls. That not only impacts vulnerable populations like seniors, but stretches first responder resources.

City and county police agencies across Maryland are moving to encrypted radio systems to protect witness and victim privacy, as well as officer safety. But some say the switch affects community trust.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide are losing officers faster than they can recruit them. Automated license plate readers and using drones as first responders are just two solutions that can act as "force multipliers."

With 70 fires currently burning in the Western U.S., the federal government's firefighting leadership teams have all been dispatched to incidents. It's a reflection of persistent recruitment and retention challenges.

Designating emergency medical services by law would go a long way toward addressing the many issues they face, including workforce shortages and funding deficits that make it difficult to help in critical situations.

Apalachee High School staff just this year started wearing badges with a form of ID from Centegix that allows them to alert administrators and first responders of an emergency, including Wednesday's deadly shooting.