Public Safety
What’s in store for public safety tech in 2025
In the coming year, artificial intelligence and other tech solutions will be key for understaffed law enforcement agencies looking to keep their communities safe.
Drone sighting epidemic spurs Dems in Congress to urge more transparency from feds
Unexplained drone sightings in New Jersey and New York have raised concerns across the Northeast. Some lawmakers are demanding more information from federal agencies.
Alabama senator refiles bill to make body cameras, dashboard footage public records
Alabama does not classify video and audio of police encounters as public records and provides limited access to those captured on tape.
How drones are helping one community recover from Hurricane Helene
In South Carolina, drones are playing a key role in disaster assessment for the city of Aiken to more efficiently and accurately apply for federal recovery funds.
App offers city’s youth a safe space to report concerns, challenges
Denver’s Power of One app allows young people in a section of the city to get help. It’s part of a wider push for reporting systems to get assistance to juveniles who need it.
Inside one state’s effort to digitize 911 to improve public safety
In Arizona, officials hope next generation 911 capabilities will help improve the state’s public safety response and supplement the work of understaffed dispatcher teams.
Lawmakers in one state are considering regulating police use of automated license plate readers
Virginia lawmakers are debating whether to regulate law enforcement departments’ use of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR). They heard constituents’ perspectives on the technology and reviewed studies from the Virginia State Crime Commission.
Local fire department testing new wildfire risk reduction app
The wildfire mitigation app uses AI to recommend tips for making people's homes more fire resistant.
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.
Russian email domains sent uncredible bomb threats to polling places, FBI says
Kremlin-backed actors have a long record of sowing fear and disinformation into the U.S. election process.
Featured eBooks
What has been learned about civilian oversight of law enforcement
It’s been four years since the murder of George Floyd, and while political tensions have thrown up obstacles to the approach, the experience of some cities and counties indicates it can help heal sour relations.
Letter from Congress warns county against Chinese drone use
Arguing that the drones put privacy and national security at risk, a U.S. House committee is asking the country to stop buying them. The letter hints its efforts could expand to localities nationwide.
A boy’s bicycling death haunts a Black neighborhood. 35 years later, there’s still no sidewalk.
Pedestrian deaths are highest in formerly redlined areas, neighborhoods where Black people lived because of discriminatory federal mortgage lending practices. The lack of sidewalks, damaged walkways and roads in these communities are creating a little-recognized public health crisis.
Crime is down, FBI says, but politicians still choose statistics to fit their narratives
Murder in the United States fell nearly 12% in 2023 compared with 2022.
Move over! Two map apps to notify drivers when state police are stopped ahead
The Illinois State Police is using Waze and Google Maps to alert drivers in real time about roadside personnel in an effort to cut down on injuries.
Local 911 systems face a national emergency
Call takers and dispatchers are working with technology from the 1980s, experts say. But there’s a possible solution.
Six months later, what did cities learn from the solar eclipse? Plan, plan, plan.
Communities in the path of totality look back at the lessons learned. Preparing for the worst and biggest impacts is worth it, they say.
Mayors rally to support Springfield amid 'unprecedented' situation
Local leaders have experience responding to crises that attract national attention, from natural disasters to shootings, but the politics and threats of violence in the central Ohio town make this situation different.
These counties are recruiting teenagers to shore up a corrections guard shortage
Two counties in Texas house training programs in local high schools as officials pitch corrections jobs as gateways to criminal justice careers.
A national blueprint for taking money out of justice
COMMENTARY | A year ago, Illinois became the first state to abolish cash bail. Critics argued this reform would result in an increase in crime—they were wrong.
