Justice and Public Safety

First responders, emergency dispatchers and public safety technology vendors are preparing to deal with a cold reality: Much less federal funding for 911 upgrades than needed or expected. What happens next for response times and innovation?

The Summit County Common Pleas Court is going to install four kiosks that will allow jurors to conveniently check in to court and modernize its software so that potential jurors can upload documentation online.

Meadville City Council members approved a contract with a new IT provider. The city was seeking better cybersecurity and wanted to get away from "day-to-day" issues it experienced with its previous provider.

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of social media network Facebook, is now staring at numerous legal challenges for Facebook's role in spreading hate speech about Muslim minorities in Myanmar.

After a year of facing legal opposition from determined residents of Dewey Beach, Del., Verizon has agreed to a settlement. The company has stated it will move five 5G poles off a beachfront.

The full Springfield City Council likely will take up a vote soon finalizing a two-year contract with a company that would install license plate readers (LPRs) sometime early next year, with police officials in support.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is seeking proposals from companies for a transit system that would feature all-electric autonomous mini buses that citizens can call for via an app or city kiosk.

The 10-year contract signed with Axon Enterprises Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., will include more equipment than the city originally sought, while costing less money than was first anticipated.

The Madison City Council will again take up whether police officers should be equipped with body cams — a technology that's been contentious in Wisconsin's most liberal city but is increasingly standard in the country.

The San Francisco-based startup, Pano AI, is installing panoramic cameras on California mountaintops to help spot signs of wildfires. The system uses rotating cameras to snap photos of the landscape every 60 seconds.

The Tahlequah Police Department is training officers to use drones for assistance on certain emergency calls. So far, the department has received two drones to assist in day-to-day operations.

Virtual hearings and e-filing tools bring convenience — but not to everyone. Individuals representing themselves in civil cases can struggle with limited digital offerings and user experiences designed for lawyers.

A new technology platform launched by the Madison, Wis., Police Department on Wednesday will send automated text messages to people who call 911 or are victims of crimes, department officials said.

The New York police department is aiming to improve public safety and communications with an integrated technology ecosystem that includes a real-time crime center, cloud-based software and more.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, Calif., rejected yet another civil lawsuit alleging that the California high-speed rail project is unconstitutional. The decision came yesterday.

Yesterday, the ACLU said it filed a lawsuit against the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training because the agency didn't respond appropriately to an ACLU records request about facial recognition.

The Federal Trade Commission reported that in the third quarter of this year, it received 134,366 reports of phone call fraud, with nearly $165 million in reported money lost.

From state errors that caused overpayments to limitations that have prevented some people from getting benefits, many citizens in Michigan are facing a bureaucratic nightmare with the state unemployment system.