Justice and Public Safety

By modernizing its 911 system and embracing automation, El Paso is delivering faster, more efficient emergency services with tools like a bot to take non-emergency calls and real-time language translation.

A multistate agreement between New York, California, Connecticut and Illuminate Education reinforces growing expectations that technology vendors take stronger measures to protect student information.

A test run of ShotSpotter technology announced in 2024 was funded by part of an $800,000 federal grant. The project was never activated; the decision follows a “comprehensive reassessment” of police priorities.

The Philadelphia Police Department is urging residents to protect their vehicles amid a wave of high-tech auto thefts targeting push-to-start vehicles with keyless fobs.

Northern California prosecutors used artificial intelligence to write a criminal court filing that contained references to nonexistent legal cases and precedents, says a Northern California district attorney.

Axon announced its acquisition of 911 tech provider Prepared earlier this year. This new $625 million buyout of the emergency dispatch and communications tech firm is meant to help Axon craft a public safety ecosystem.

The borough Police Department used a state grant to buy four new body-worn cameras and three automated license plate readers. It includes a 10-year vendor contract that will enable periodic technology replacement.

NERIS is set to replace a 50-year-old emergency incident reporting program on a Jan. 1 nationwide rollout. The new system has presented business opportunities for suppliers of government technology.

The town board voted unanimously last month to put bags over the devices. A special meeting of the Board of Selectmen and the mayor will scrutinize how police use license plate readers and security cameras.

For a price north of $130 million, Motorola was contracted to deliver thousands of radios for police, firefighters and others, as well as install or retrofit more than 50 transmission towers in Virginia.

Police in Gig Harbor, Wash., are the latest Pierce County law enforcement agency to acquire a drone. Plans are for it to assist in areas including missing persons investigations and tracking suspects.

Staff at New York City's more than 1,800 schools will wear wireless buttons on their lanyards, designed by the Florida company SOS Technologies to directly contact first responders and dispatch emergency personnel.

A University of Minnesota project uses drones to examine smoke and then analyze it to understand a fire's flow patterns. It represents a significant step toward using fully autonomous drones for emergency response.

The mayor and Board of Selectmen in Putnam, Conn., will convene this week for a special meeting regarding the police department’s use of license plate readers and security cameras in town.

In Miami-Dade County, Fla., the public defender's office has embraced AI to organize information, conduct legal research and support other aspects of its work in the county of 2.7 million people.

The Wicomico County Sheriff's Office is using a new AI program to transcribe audio from body-worn cameras so that deputies don’t have to type it from scratch. Critics worry nuances could get lost in translation.

After teen suicides drew the attention of lawsuits and lawmakers, the artificial intelligence chatbot platform Character.AI announced plans to restrict the use of its platform to two hours a day for minors.

A series of cyber attacks on public defenders’ offices in multiple western states have spotlighted the technological vulnerabilities of an often overlooked but critical part of the U.S. judicial system.