Justice and Public Safety

The public safety tech major has now integrated its body-worn and in-car cameras with its situational awareness platform, CommandCentral Aware — part of a larger trend of police gaining more and more access to video.

The two tech providers will offer dispatchers and first responders precise geolocation data for buildings three stories and taller. The move reflects the growing precision of data in the public safety space.

A new report from the Illinois Law Enforcement and Training Standards Board identified multiple issues Bloomington, Normal and Illinois State University police departments have experienced since implementing body cams.

In an effort to improve Calistoga's policing, six automated license plate reader cameras will soon be installed at the entry points of the city, making Calistoga the first Napa County city to directly lease the devices.

Weeks after New Orleans opened the door for police to use facial recognition, the city passed another ordinance aimed at creating new restrictions and reporting requirements on the controversial technology.

The Anderson, Ind., Police Department recently received funding to purchase a drone as well as the accompanying software package to use it through a community safety grant from CenterPoint Energy.

More than 1,000 K-12 individual school buildings and districts in Ohio will receive funds to improve security, to be used for staffing more resource officers, buying new security cameras and other tech upgrades.

Under the terms of a recently approved ordinance, the city council must approve the use of technology that can monitor and identify individuals. The policy came out of controversy surrounding surveillance tech across the city.

The seller of gunshot detection tech had sued VICE Media for defamation after the claim was published in a Chicago case. The suit has been dismissed, but VICE has issued an editor’s note on the story.

The GIS software company Esri recently recognized the city of Grapevine's GIS team for digitally mapping the layouts and access points of a local school district's campuses so first responders could plan for emergencies.

The Willimantic, Conn., Police Department began using the cameras on July 1, and this week department officials told local media that "the body cameras have assisted police with several investigations in the past month."

Cities, especially those in fire-prone areas, are increasingly exploring tech-based alternatives to traditional fireworks shows. While not everyone is a fan of the switch, officials are discovering unexpected benefits.

Yellow Alert systems are meant to help police track down suspects involved in fatal hit-and-run crashes through tips from the public. They are similar to the Amber Alerts issued for abducted children.

Dubbed the Automated Injustice Project, the group is raising questions about whether safeguards are in place when state officials are relying on AI to make crucial decisions in areas such as health care and justice.

After several years of pushing, the Phoenix Fire Department has officially launched its unmanned aircraft systems program, laying the policy and best practices groundwork for other city departments to follow suit.

The New York Police Department must disclose thousands of documents and emails revealing facial recognition surveillance of Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, a judge has ruled recently.

The updated crime blotter replaces a manual process and will share information and tweet out each incident on a new blotter Twitter account after the reports have been reviewed and approved by a supervisor.

It's rare that an electric bus catches on fire with only 18 reported cases globally, and after one of Connecticut's electric buses burst into flames the NTSB stepped in to investigate.