Justice and Public Safety

Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill this week stiffening penalties for drone operators that interfere with aerial wildfire suppression efforts. Violators could face a criminal misdemeanor, up to 6 months in jail and hefty civil fines.

Under a new Vision Zero bill, cities would be able to create local laws for speed and red light cameras, hold hearings on the issue and locate monitoring devices in areas with histories of crashes and traffic violations.

Officials in the California city are reporting that the gunshot detection sensors they installed in gun crime hot spots are not working properly. The city is working with the vendor, Flock Safety, to resolve the technical issues.

A new deal between the two public safety tech companies could mean easier ways to track training, monitor complaints, evaluate officers and other tasks. CivicEye is coming off a $12.4 million funding round.

The union representing the city’s 2,500 traffic agents — who are part of the NYPD and write parking tickets and direct traffic — are asking in contract talks for the same type of body-worn cameras used by police officers.

Edwardsville, Ill., police and fire officials voiced their support to the City Council for a new digital database that would help to track state legislation affecting their departments.

Alaska's cutting-edge drone program will empower emergency responders to reach remote terrain, saving lives through the integration of aerial and geographic information systems.

Dallas police are struggling to access evidence amid an ongoing ransomware attack that is disrupting trials, according to defense lawyers who are exasperated after months of pervasive evidence storage issues.

The Allegheny Valley School District joined a growing list of school districts nationwide that are in the process of pursuing legal action against social media companies like TikTok, Facebook and YouTube.

The Lexington Police Department has used body cameras since 2016, and all the department’s sworn officers are now required to use them when they interact with the public.

Lawmakers in the state are considering a bill that would allow police agencies to charge a fee for body camera footage. Under the proposal, police could charge as much as $100 an hour to redact requested footage.

The city implemented a system to identity and detect drone activity in restricted airspace or near critical infrastructure. The deployment comes well ahead of the FAA mandate that requires drones be equipped with remote identification capability.

Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones is hoping a portion of the money Limestone County has received from the opioid settlement can benefit the county's court system.

Colorado officials are working on standardizing remote access to court hearings, as what started out as an emergency fix during the COVID-19 pandemic has become an accepted practice in courtrooms across the state.

The possibility of a controversial gunshot detection program coming to Raleigh may be more likely than before, Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson suggested recently.

The unmanned aircraft system will be used by the Allen County Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The drone will be equipped with thermal technology to assist in search-and-rescue operations as well as inspections.

Dallas information technology staff are still working with consultants and outside groups to help review and clean servers possibly impacted by the recent ransomware attack against the city’s network.

The app went through a major update in conjunction with the end of Title 42 — a border policy that for three years has blocked asylum seekers from approaching ports of entry.