Justice and Public Safety

A state supreme court justice has scheduled a conference for March to determine the contents of a judicial order that seeks to fine and shut down the operations of a cryptocurrency mining company in the Falls.

While the city has not confirmed that it was the victim of a cyber attack, officials have issued a statement saying that cybersecurity experts are investigating "recently detected suspicious activity on (the) digital network."

The City Council has approved the installation of 40 license plate readers throughout the city. Flock Group Inc. will provide the equipment and maintain it through a five-year agreement.

A state Supreme Court justice is expected to issue an order sometime today confirming a fine of more than half a million dollars against a cryptocurrency mining company in Niagara Falls.

The deal with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe marks the latest signal of interest in the gov tech market by private equity. ImageTrend sells software to public safety and health organizations.

"Justice for Nova" became a popular cry around Pittston, Pa., after police recovered a severely emaciated pit bull in 2021 from an alleyway where she'd been abandoned and left for dead.

Legislation introduced by Del. David Moon would limit the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement to the investigation of certain violent crimes, human trafficking offenses or ongoing threats to public safety or national security.

Months after the Madison City Council narrowly approved funding for a test run of police body cameras, the technology will again need approval before a 90-day pilot program can start late this spring or summer.

A Pittsburgh startup company that has developed a wearable device to detect and reverse drug overdoses has won first place in the Richard King Mellon Foundation Social-Impact Pitch Competition.

School threats aren't new, but their dispersal through technology has necessitated innovations to catch culprits. Pennsylvania's Safe2Say Something tip line, for example, has received nearly 83,000 tips since early 2019.

Lawmakers from both parties are supporting a bill that would help law enforcement agencies in the state afford body cameras and the necessary storage technology. Smaller agencies have struggled with these costs.

Cryptocurrency scams are increasing, with about 46,000 people reporting they've lost more than $1 billion, the Denver office of the FBI warns. Cryptocurrency can be both the investment and the payment in these scams.

The web of wires connecting thousands of power plants to supply hundreds of millions of Americans is vulnerable to more than cyber attacks. A rise in physical attacks has also caused significant disruptions and losses.

Following a 2020 state law targeting illegal bus-passers, safety tech company BusPatrol says it has equipped 1,000 school buses in Pennsylvania with cameras that captured just under 8,000 violations since August 2022.

Dr. Shamika Kelley, director of New Orleans' crime lab, outlined a plan to get the new facility up and running, returning a DNA testing-equipped crime lab to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.

Funded by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the University of Missouri will connect to the Wi-Fi servers of 26 rural school districts, scan them for potential threats and prepare schools to respond.

Cases before the U.S. Supreme Court raise questions of whether social media companies do too much or too little in the way of moderating online content. The decisions could mean big changes for companies and users.

The Lima NAACP continues to call for the Allen County Sheriff's Office to equip deputies with body cameras, saying it has now reached out to the office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for assistance.