Public Safety
Covering topics such as corrections, criminal justice, emergency management, gun control and police/fire/EMS.
Over recent decades we’ve moved toward a much more effective and humane system to deal with youth crime. Evidence and research, not hyperbole and hysteria, should be guiding today’s debate.
When a police officer exhibits courtesy and empathy, it brings into focus the nuanced, complex relationship between law enforcement and the African American community.
With its residents upset by crime, homelessness and high taxes, it’s become a depressed and discouraging place. Can it once again be a shining exemplar of modern urbanist success?
The state’s House Judiciary Committee heard extensive testimony for a package of 11 bills that would implement safe storage laws, require universal background checks for the purchase of all firearms and establish red flag laws.
Lawmakers in several states are pushing legislation banning the use of a new credit-card merchant code for firearms retailers. But its use to flag unusual purchases might have prevented some mass shootings.
The state Legislature has continued its use of virtual sessions to allow virtual participation in the legislative process. But as Zoombombing occurrences have increased in recent weeks, some are reconsidering the access.
The First Step Act was meant to compassionately release people from federal prison who are terminally ill or aging and who pose little to no safety threat. But data shows that judges rejected more than 80 percent of requests.
Just four members of the public were allowed to speak on a bill that would increase penalties for inciting a riot, allows police and prosecutors to determine what constitutes a riot and escalates punishment for property damage.
Investigations revealed communication flaws and unclear lines of authority in the medical response that further hampered lifesaving efforts. Nineteen children and two adults died in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary.
President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to “finish the job” on a range of economic and social issues in his second State of the Union address.
When it comes to addressing gun violence, local governments are on the front lines. But a successful decades-long campaign by the NRA for state laws preempting localities from regulating firearms is undercutting them.
The state has ambitious goals to end natural-gas usage over the next several years as a way to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. But storms and fires are more routinely causing residents to go days or weeks without power.
Nine Democratic candidates are vying for Mayor Jim Kenney’s seat and nearly all of them have said they would declare a citywide emergency for gun violence. But what would this local government declaration actually do?
With more than 1,000 civilians being killed by cops every year, mayors and city councils can’t be equivocal about ending the warrior approach to policing.
The Wildfire Emergency Act would accelerate forest restoration projects, create a program to maintain critical facilities’ power during disruptions, help low-income households fireproof their homes and establish a fire-training center.
The video of the beating of Tyre Nichols by police officers has, once again, sparked calls for Congress to address law enforcement violence, but the Republican majority has not yet shown signs of prioritizing a policing overhaul this session.
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