Justice and Public Safety

ShotSpotter — which rebranded last year as SoundThinking — notifies 911 operators of gunfire detected by audio sensors in 3 square miles in east and southeast Durham, where the city says a third of gunshot wounds occur.

A Pennsylvania police official can’t fully guarantee that data lost amid the Jan. 3 deletion of information on state government servers will not result in the withdrawal of charges in criminal cases for lack of evidence.

After lengthy contract talks, the city will keep the gunshot detection system in place through September. But critics say it disproportionately harms people of color and some attorneys argue it shouldn’t be used in court cases.

Beverly Vista Middle School students in California used an artificial-intelligence program to fabricate nude images of people using real faces. Some experts say the legality of this has yet to be tested in court.

The Administrative Office of Illinois Courts has granted Lee County $1,016,623.10 in funds from the 2024 Illinois Court Technology Modernization Program.

Chicago has joined a growing list of cities that have cut ties with a controversial company that tries to reduce gun violence with tech that listens for the crack of gunshots and immediately notifies police.

The Ohio Department of Transportation is planning to fly a large drone over a stretch of highway outside Columbus as part of a pilot traffic surveillance program, after receiving special permission.

The company has announced the nationwide outage on Thursday was not caused by a cyber attack, and that it was the result of complications from an ongoing network expansion.

The two sellers of technology for emergency responders said that CentralSquare will become a verified reseller for RapidSOS. The deal is the latest to bring together gov tech vendors in that space.

A plan to limit police use of facial recognition technology is likely to pass in this year’s session of the General Assembly. The bill would allow police to use the tools to investigate violent crimes and serious offenses.

After a Kansas drinking water treatment facility was compromised through remote access on a former employee's cellphone in 2019, the state is launching a tool to assess the cybersecurity of the agencies in charge of keeping drinking water safe.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Tuesday he would end the city’s use of the police surveillance tool after extending the city’s contract to use the technology through September.

The elected clerk of one of North Carolina’s highest-volume courthouses has urged state officials to delay the “rushed” expansion of new technology designed to modernize the judicial system.

City officials have announced that they will join a California lawsuit against major social media companies over what Mayor Eric Adams is calling a “mental health crisis” facing young people.

The ShotSpotter gunshot detection system has worn a bull's-eye among progressives in Chicago for years, and now Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will make good on his campaign promise to get rid of the technology.

The new law empowers school boards to issue bonds to make repairs after a natural disaster without having to follow the usual procedures that require approval from voters in the school district.

The Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service is offering new information and no-cost training related to preventing and addressing the safety issues associated with electric vehicle systems.

The Pennsylvania court online operations have returned to normal following a disruptive cyber attack. The attack disabled access to online dockets, PACFile, PAePay and the Guardianship Tracking System, among other disruptions.