Smart Cities

The city of Philadelphia has launched a two-year pilot project that makes free transit passes available to its more than 20,000 employees. The program promises a wealth of data and a lifeline to public transit.

What began as a project to monitor the health of tunnel ventilation systems within the rail network of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, has evolved into a citywide upgrade of building infrastructure.

The police department will be installing Flock Safety Raven gunshot audio detectors in conjunction with additional Flock Safety license plate recognition cameras. The plan is raising privacy concerns.

Chelan County PUD commissioners voted in favor of buying seven capacitor banks at about $4 million total for the upcoming Microsoft data center. The banks will ensure more efficient power delivery to the facility, officials say.

City officials hope to install more than 140 cameras at locations across Bluefield over the course of the next six months. The new cameras will be monitored by the police department and are designed to deter crime.

The rise in violent property crimes, auto thefts and traffic violations in the Bay Area city has police looking to surveillance technology for an upper hand. But not everyone is convinced it is worth the privacy tradeoffs.

The Cumberland Community Improvement District unveiled the Cumberland Hopper, an autonomous vehicle they are piloting for the next eight months in partnership with Beep, an autonomous transport company.

It’s unclear exactly how many license plate readers are active in the state, though nearly 100 have been purchased by state and local law enforcement to date. The technology has raised fierce debate about privacy.

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.

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.

The Inclement Weather Decision Support App developed by a joint effort between the U.S. military and US Ignite uses real-time weather, transportation and other data to shape decisions around base operations.

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 city's Public Safety Committee has voted to support the San Diego Police Department's controversial smart streetlight proposal this week. The technology, complete with license plate readers, was first pitched in March.

The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance announced its third annual C² Challenge, a call to urban tech companies and universities to submit low-cost smart city solutions for the Denver metro region.

Police agencies across Boulder County are turning to license plate recognition systems to get a handle on vehicle theft and other crime. Officials say the technology helps to more quickly identify stolen vehicles.

Audi will team up with Spoke Safety in Peachtree Corners, Ga., to further develop connected vehicle technologies to communicate information related to vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians.

A proposed network of public and private cameras, tied into the department's computer-aided dispatch system, would allow a valuable crime-fighting tool and near-immediate access to live video across the city, officials say.

Law enforcement and city officials in Norfolk see these advanced capabilities as a boon to public safety, but residents and state lawmakers alike have voiced privacy concerns about the amount of data the cameras capture.