Public Safety
Covering topics such as corrections, criminal justice, emergency management, gun control and police/fire/EMS.
It’s about governance and whether these systems can avoid reinforcing existing inequities. States, local governments and agencies need to move to embed fairness, transparency and accountability into every stage of AI use.
The city purchased two Tesla vehicles for a pilot program of electrifying the police department’s fleet. Preliminary reviews gave the Teslas low marks but the scope of the survey was very narrow.
Republicans and Democrats weren’t the only ones on the ballot this Tuesday. Issues of policing, housing and clean energy were put before voters too.
Only 53 percent of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s 16,070 employees have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 74 percent of LAPD employees.
Mayor Ted Wheeler will seek $400,000 to hire back 25 recently retired officers to fill vacancies and $2.6 million for body cameras and a civilian dean of police training. The City Council will vote on the proposal in late November.
To combat threats of rising sea levels, officials have decided to raise roads to protect existing infrastructure. But some homeowners claim the elevated roads sent floodwaters into their property, making them unrentable.
Racial impact statements can provide state legislators with a way to evaluate the impact of proposed legislation on sentencing and incarceration. Nine states have adopted them, and more should follow.
The city’s Finance Committee has rebuffed three budget amendments that would have redirected $750,000 of the police department’s budget to fund a newly established team of mental health first responders.
The state Supreme Court will determine if police should be allowed to track people via their cellphone location without a court-issued warrant. The court will deliver a decision in the coming months.
One day after the city’s vaccine mandate went into effect, police officers and firefighters are unable to report to work for not being vaccinated. Some have filed for an exemption while others are facing separation.
After a summer of devastating wildfires, many parts of California are expecting rain over the next several weeks. The early precipitation would end the fire season but could cause severe flooding.
Baltimore City and County vaccine mandate has gone into effect, but vaccine rate information for several police and fire departments in the area is incomplete or unavailable. Maryland’s vaccination rate is at more than 80 percent.
A preliminary estimate shows that the Caldor Fire cost tens of millions in lost economic activity. Wildfires, and the economic disruption they cause, have a large economic impact. But right now, California has a mostly incomplete picture of how much fires cost the state each year.
The current system does not service many jurisdictions in the area and isn’t capable of handling the growing demand for mental health response systems. The city will switch away from its current model in 2024.
A coalition of police officers, firefighters and other city employees have claimed that the city’s COVID-19 vaccine and testing rules are discriminatory. The city has a vaccination rate of approximately 78 percent.
Despite having less bike infrastructure than other neighborhoods, Chicago police issued citations for biking on the sidewalk eight and three times more often in Black and Latino neighborhoods, respectively.
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