Local Government

The city of Long Beach has released a new tool for the police department to help connect at-risk individuals with resources to keep them from becoming unnecessarily involved within the criminal justice system.

The long-awaited free, electric vehicle passenger shuttle program in National City is expected to launch by the end of summer thanks to $400,000 from the Port of San Diego and a three-year contract with an operator.

In an email sent Tuesday to city employees, City Manager T.C. Broadnax said information stored by the city’s human resources department was exposed in the May cyber attack against city systems.

The ransomware attack, concealed in an email, downed all three of the George County’s servers when it struck on July 15. The incident prompted an emergency declaration that allowed the IT team to circumvent contracting processes.

Public utility districts in Douglas and Chelan counties plan to exchange miles of fiber cable for both fiber broadband networks to deliver high-speed Internet service to customers at an expected bargain.

Baltimore County Police will start using a controversial gunshot detection technology in two southern precincts next week. Opponents have questioned the reliability and accuracy of the technology.

Washoe County, Nev., CIO Behzad Zamanian outlines how public-sector agencies can take what they learned from the rise of the Internet and apply it to artificial intelligence as a tool to deliver better services.

The Affordable Connectivity Program will likely run out of funding in 2024 if no action is taken to sustain it. Experts held a congressional briefing this week to discuss what the end of the program might mean.

Police dispatchers in Atlanta now have access to a cloud-based tool that provides real-time emergency information, offering visual and audio data that includes caller details and precise location information.

The MetroLab Network has announced the release of its new Model Data Governance Policy & Practice Guide for Cities and Counties, aiming to support data governance initiatives at the local level.

The city’s Surveillance Advisory Board is set to review the police department's gunshot detection system, possibly answering the question of how effective it is in reducing officer response times to potential firearm violence.

The Racine City Council voted to accept over $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a solar array at the city's transit facility. The array will be used to power the city's existing fleet of electric buses.

Plus, organizations urge Congress to support legislation for rural communities; a report explores redundancies in federal broadband programs; and much more.

San Diego officials on Tuesday gave themselves another three years to review the city’s many surveillance technologies, an extension that should prevent the tools from being put on pause.

Odessa Mayor Javier Joven is demanding transparency around the investigation into a data breach that stemmed from a former city employee’s account. The account was not disabled after the employee’s termination.

Melissa Kraft, who has led Dallas County’s IT division since September 2020, will take over the city of Frisco’s Technology Services Department. She announced the move in a recent social media post.

The Lafayette Police Department is moving away from the traditional paper citations and shifting to an electronic ticketing model to improve citation management and officer safety, officials say.

The North Texas Innovation Alliance brings together public and private organizations in the region, offering a coordinated approach for technology implementations — such as drones and robotics.