Archive for the ‘Fire and Police Departments’ Category

TALLAHASSEE — Diop Kamau’s home in a leafy, gated community just north of town is not easy to find — for good reason. For more than two decades, the 52-year-old former Hawthorne, Calif., police officer has made a living embarrassing cops with a video camera. Stung by the rough treatment of his father during a… Read more >>

Decades ago, answering 911 calls was a fairly straightforward process: Citizens who were in trouble dialed the emergency number from land line phones, and local police, fire and medical teams responded. That’s what 911 systems were created for. But these analog systems — some built half a century ago — have been left behind by… Read more >>

California and Sprint have officially joined forces to spearhead the nation’s first mass mobile alert system, which means warnings about terrorist attacks, wildfires, hurricanes, school shootings and other emergency situations could soon be at citizens’ fingertips. The California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) and Sprint announced Tuesday, Aug. 24, plans to deploy the Commercial Mobile… Read more >>

An 87-year-old man from Florida can testify that home security systems actually work and catch criminals. He has his monitoring system and police to thank for his safety and rescue from three burglars. The elderly man had been a victim of burglars twice already, and he decided it was time to have some home security…. Read more >>

The ferry arrived, the gangway went down and 7-year-old Emma Powell rushed toward the Statue of Liberty. She climbed onto the grass around the star-shaped foundation. She put on a green foam crown with seven protruding rays. Turning so that her body was oriented just like Lady Liberty’s, Emma extended her right arm skyward with… Read more >>

“We have been aggressively exploring new means to assist our officers and improve public safety, and Seattle should consider the feasibility and usefulness of this technology.” — Council member Tim Burgess chairman of the Public Safety and Education Committee. The Seattle City Council is considering a pilot that would test first-person cameras mounted directly on… Read more >>

IQinVision, market leader in high-performance HD megapixel network cameras, smart IP cameras, and network video recording systems, today announced that JET Oil has installed IQinVision HD megapixel technology at 24 of its unmanned gasoline stations. To date, the IP video surveillance systems have achieved considerable success in reducing equipment tampering and in increasing asset protection…. Read more >>

The number of cities using public security cameras grows almost daily.  Cities are finding cameras invaluable resources for police departments, public safety officers and city officials. The news this week is that Bryan, Texas a small city in eastern Texas has completed the first phase of a security system that will eventually cover the downtown… Read more >>

Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have created amazing opportunities for law enforcement professionals at local, state and federal levels to collect, categorize, cross-reference and share data and intelligence in a way that often results in a wealth of actionable knowledge. To take advantage of the opportunities these tools create, criminal justice agencies have… Read more >>

An emerging concept of policing appears to be helping communities reduce traffic accidents and serious crime. Consider Lafourche Parish, La., one of seven test sites nationwide implementing a paradigm known as Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS). In 2009, the number of severe traffic accidents in the parish dropped to just 10, down… Read more >>