Justice and Public Safety

Despite policy guardrails that would have only allowed police to use a robot to kill a suspect in extreme cases, San Francisco supervisors have walked back their approval amid significant public protest.

Cyber incidents have hit state courts in Alaska, Georgia and Texas in recent years. Court leaders and CIOs at the NCSC eCourts conference this week shared what happened and what they learned from the experiences.

In legal matters like eviction appeals, people often defend themselves. But this can be a confusing process for a layperson. A technology lab and court collaboration brings a new tool aimed at making the process more accessible.

The Brookings Institution hosted a panel of experts to discuss the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, which was recently issued by the White House, and what this document means and the work that remains.

The gunshot detection company has encountered another delay in trying to install equipment in a shooting-prone part of the city. Officials say the rollout of the system is nearly complete.

City officials have approved the purchase of 55 more license plate reading cameras for deployment throughout the city. The newest deployment will complement the 38 cameras already in use.

Several Christian schools were among those to receive state grant money earmarked for putting security cameras, visitor management systems, automatic door locks and other tech-driven safety measures into K-12 buildings.

Angst between the County Commission and the Sheriff’s Office over the regional emergency call dispatching center continues to mount as politicians question the Sheriff’s Office about why the county lags in 911 tech.

ShotSpotter bought Forensic Logic earlier this year and now runs the COPLINK X search engine. In a social media post, Davis recounted the 10 years helming the firm and what it meant to work in the public safety sector.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a measure requiring all public and private schools to create digital maps of their buildings for law enforcement and other first responders to use in emergencies.

This time next year Penobscot County sheriff's deputies will be wearing body cameras and have dashboard cameras in their cruisers as their law enforcement counterparts in nearby counties do.

The Detroit Justice Center along with Sugar Law Center and Schulz Law filed a lawsuit on behalf of community members against Detroit City Council's $8.5 million expansion of ShotSpotter surveillance technology.

The system that the Washington State Patrol uses to find missing persons has helped locate 70 people in 77 cases. Now the system is able to geo-target the Wireless Emergency Alerts directly to subscribers' cell phones.

San Francisco police will soon be allowed to use robots to kill people during rare and limited emergency situations under a controversial new policy that was approved by city supervisors on Tuesday.

The city has released its controversial policy that would allow police robots to use lethal force against a suspect as a last resort. A similar proposal in Oakland was withdrawn after public outcry.

Incarcerated individuals in some Texas prisons will no longer have to wait until their release to learn how to use the latest technology — like smartphones and other communications tools — through a newly formed program.

The city of Boulder has announced the launch of a new web-based emergency mapping tool that will help first responders plan and coordinate evacuations. It will also provide the community with access to real-time updates.

Some 600 phones in the Bay Area recorded waveform data from the Seven Trees earthquake last October. That data is being used by researchers at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory to better understand the effects of quakes.