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.
Gov. Ned Lamont and the state legislative leaders must decide whether to extend the emergency powers related to the coronavirus pandemic that are set to expire at the end of this month.
The City Council has voted to redistribute funds from approximately 200 police officer departures and reinvest it in technology projects and other department needs. $3 million will be used for community-based public safety programs.
In one town, police say products like Nextdoor and Ring are helping fight crime. But racism and vigilantism are pervasive on safety platforms.
The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office has been using a software since Jan. 2020 that removes names, location and race from police reports in an attempt to implement “race-blind” charging.
New Jersey announced that residents who lost their cars in the floods caused by Tropical Storm Ida can get free and discounted Uber and Lyft rides for the next two weeks. In some cases, insurance may cover costs as well.
The heavy rains and flash flooding caused by Hurricane Ida inflicted an estimated $8 million in damages to 28 buses, about 12 percent of all buses housed, at Staten Island’s Castleton Bus Depot.
There have been plenty of failures along the way, but there’s no question coordination between levels of government has improved over the past 20 years, along with security capabilities for blocking catastrophic attacks.
The legislation that bankrolls medical screenings and treatment did not account for inflation-fueled increases, which means the program could run out of cash unless Congress modifies the funding formula.
Since 9/11, it’s the only state Capitol in the Northeast without metal detectors and one of only eight nationwide that anyone can bring a gun into, whether the firearm is concealed or carried openly.
Natural disasters such as fires, floods and storms are more intense and are developing more rapidly. The “new normal” that climate change has brought to emergency managers is unpredictability.
Democratic state lawmakers want to broaden immigrant legal protections by closing exemptions under the sanctuary law, but police unions are ramping up efforts to block the legislation.
Federal pandemic relief funds offer state and local governments the chance to invest in public health programming and infrastructure to make communities safer, particularly those that have been the most harmed.
Georgia’s capital city continues to be deeply divided when it comes to policing: some want to defund the department, while others want more officers. But police culture reform without defunding might be the best solution.
As a part of reshaping the duties of the police department, city and Capital Metro officials are considering a new police force entirely devoted to regional public transit. Many details of the proposed security team are still undecided.
A federal judge has proposed that the city of Portland, Ore., and the U.S. Department of Justice use a court-appointed monitor to oversee their nine-year-old settlement on police reform.
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