First Responders

A new take on robocop? Georgia lawmakers look into ways AI can improve public safety

With artificial intelligence rapidly advancing, what public safety jobs can look like is changing quickly, sometimes in a seriously sci-fi kind of way.

  • By Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder

This housing fix could help build more homes. But firefighters are sounding the alarm.

At the center of the housing debate are building codes, and whether states’ bids to update them to address the affordable housing crises poses safety risks to the individuals they are trying to help.

  • By Kaitlyn Levinson

City tackles first responders’ opioid compassion fatigue

When physically and emotionally exhausted emergency personnel started saying, “Let them die,” officials in Huntington, West Virginia, knew they had a problem. They also had a solution.

  • By Kaitlyn Levinson

Cities know that the way police respond to mental crisis calls must change. But how?

Cities are experimenting with new ways to meet the rapidly increasing demand for behavioral health crisis intervention, at a time when incidents of police shooting and killing people in mental health crisis have become painfully familiar.

  • By Nicole Leonard and Kate Wolffe, KFF Health News

Gunfire, screams, carnage: As mass shootings proliferate, training gets more realistic

Law enforcement and medical workers experience the sights, smells and sounds of gun violence to prepare for tragedy.

  • By Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline

10 lessons learned from the Justice Department's review of the Uvalde school shooting

COMMENTARY | The critical review of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting offers key takeaways to help policymakers, practitioners and schools avoid the same failures if faced with a similar situation.

  • By Jaclyn Schildkraut, Rockefeller Institute of Government
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Gear without PFAS coatings could put firefighters at risk

PFAS, or forever chemicals, can harm the environment and people's health. But when used in firefighter gear, PFAS can help protect responders against flammable hazards.

  • By Matt Shipman, Futurity
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