Justice and Public Safety

Coral Springs is about to become the latest Florida city to deploy surveillance cameras on objects like traffic light poles. The city will start off with 10 cameras and continue to add to the system.

The annual effort helps firms access expertise and other resources, which in turn can lead to better tools for local and state governments. Among the areas of focus are benefits programs and bodycam video management.

A Florida judge has ruled that a Costco website doesn’t violate user privacy with tracking software and that the situation is not akin to being illegally wiretapped. Other cases have received similar rulings recently.

The city of Brownsville, Texas, gets many complaints from frustrated drivers about how out of sync its red light system is. Now the city is collecting data from traffic detectors so that traffic flow can be improved.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, political leaders made a number of changes to how homeland security is maintained. Some experts say these changes are still having negative effects on people's rights.

Late last month, a class-action action lawsuit was filed against St. Joseph's/Candler Hospital Health System, which suffered a ransomware attack that could have exposed the data of more than a million people.

As they responded to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, public safety professionals struggled to communicate with each other due to tech issues. Twenty years later, FirstNet exists to ensure this doesn't happen again.

The Spring Hill Police Department in Tennessee has proposed a new street camera pilot program to the city it serves. The program, which uses tech from Flock Safety, is intended to stop criminals, not regulate traffic.

The company’s buying spree continues with the purchase of Arx, whose cloud-based software is designed to improve access to law enforcement data. The move could help agencies strengthen ties with residents.

The topic has divided city leaders for years, with opponents concerned about the cost and necessity of the tech. But residents who came out in droves to support the cameras left the meeting satisfied following the vote.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office in California is one of the first places in the state to embrace a software that redacts people's names, addresses and racial statuses from police reports.

Several residents of Hamilton, Ohio, have complained about a drone harassing and spying on them over the last couple of years. Now the city council is preparing to take action with drone regulations.

A lawsuit filed by the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission in California states that the Oakland Police Department has, among other things, given the FBI access to license plate data without any oversight.

After hearing concerns from privacy advocates and customers, among others, Apple has decided to temporarily table its plan to scan iPhone photo libraries for pictures of child sex abuse.

The software, which launched in early July and is called ShotSpotter Connect, has had some glitches that need to be ironed out before the department can begin to judge the system’s effectiveness, officials say.

Chatham County, Ga., jailors have intercepted letters and envelopes addressed to inmates laced with fentanyl, a synthetic and inexpensive opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, along with other drugs.

The Frederick County State's Attorney's Office expects its evidence review unit's workload to nearly quadruple under new state rules requiring the adoption of body-worn cameras by 2025.

Due to concerns about self-driving accidents, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration has told Tesla to provide a significant amount of data on every car the company has sold over the last seven years.