Author: Christopher Marier

In 2020, the United States experienced one of its most dangerous years in decades. But in 2023, crime in America looked very different. That change may have gone unnoticed… Full story: Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. — even if Americans don’t believe it : NPR

Over the last decade, police departments across the U.S. have spent millions of dollars equipping their officers with body-worn cameras that record what happens as they go about their work. Everything from traffic stops to welfare checks to responses to active shooters is now documented on video. The cameras were pitched by national and local…

Law enforcement officials are bracing for an explosion of material generated by artificial intelligence that realistically depicts children being sexually exploited, deepening the challenge of identifying victims and combating such abuse. The concerns come as Meta, a primary resource for the authorities in flagging sexually explicit content, has made it tougher to track criminals by…

Cellphones can track what we say and write, where we go, what we buy and what we search on the internet. But they still aren’t being used to track one of the biggest public health threats: crashes caused by drivers distracted by the phones. More than a decade after federal and state governments seized on…

When a gunman terrorized the Michigan State campus last February, killing three students and wounding five more on a cold winter night, students, staff and faculty scurried for shelter. Then they scrambled to find out what was happening. Many of them turned to Broadcastify, a private app that’s been making audio streams from police, fire,…

In a first-of-its-kind report released Monday, the Department of Justice found hate crimes at schools have steadily risen since 2020 and schools were the third most common location for reported hate crimes to occur in the US. The number of hate crimes at schools more than doubled from 500 in 2020 to more than 1,300…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used by police forces around the world, but do the benefits always outweigh the risks? AI has the potential to transform the way the police investigate and solve crimes. It can identify patterns and links in evidence, and sift through vast amounts of data far more quickly than any…

While police departments across Maryland and in Baltimore City are experiencing staffing shortages, there are new efforts to change eligibility requirements to recruit more officers. “There are a lot of Marylanders who are worried about crime in their neighborhood and around the state,” said Maryland Senator Cheryl Kagan. “One of the challenges is that we…

Still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, court systems in many states are working to clear their case backlogs. Some court systems have moved cases faster using virtual court proceedings, court data dashboards and online jury selection. In other states, lawmakers are stepping in. The pandemic worsened problems that already had caused state and local court…

San Diego’s City Council on Tuesday approved substantial changes to the city’s regulation of surveillance technology used by police and other departments, despite vocal opposition from privacy rights advocates. In August of 2022, the City Council passed the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology (TRUST) Ordinance, which gave departments one year to identify existing…