Author: Christopher Marier

For decades, 911 call takers have had three main options: send emergency medical responders, fire and police. A fourth option is becoming increasingly common: a mental health professional who responds to some calls instead of police. A study released this March found that 44 of the largest U.S. 50 cities now have an alternative response…

New data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives shows that 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. came through unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks over a five year report… Full story: Federal report finds 68,000 guns were illegally trafficked through unlicensed dealers over 5 years

A Washington state judge overseeing a triple murder case barred the use of video enhanced by artificial intelligence as evidence in a ruling that experts said may be the first-of-its-kind in a United States criminal court. The ruling, signed Friday by King County Superior Court Judge Leroy McCullogh and first reported by NBC News, described…

The number of homicides fell by 51 percent in the first month of the trial, while the rate of all violent crime dropped 23 percent annually… Full story: Closing Bars Early Reduced Murders by 40% in One US Neighborhood

Most of the responsibility to implement these laws falls to the individual states that enact them, but the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act allocated hundreds of millions in funding for state crisis intervention programs, including risk protection orders. That money started moving out the door of the Justice Department last year. Part of the funding,…

Officials arrested 150 people in Georgia and charged them in an elaborate drug- and contraband-smuggling scheme that involved using drones to deliver illicit drugs to prisons, officials said this week. “Operation Skyhawk” was a monthslong investigation into a multi-state enterprise involving civilians, inmates, and staff at Georgia Department of Corrections facilities, Gov. Brian Kemp announced…

Around the country, more than 167,000 people were fatally shot between 2014 and 2023, according to GVA data, a decade of which is available for the first time. That’s nearly twice the number of Americans who have died in all foreign wars since World War II. Another 324,000 people were injured by firearms. Gun deaths…

The term “excited delirium” has become a lightning rod that evokes strong reactions on all sides. Advocates and many in the medical profession have raised legitimate concerns that the term was being applied too broadly and used to justify too many fatal incidents involving police restraint. At the same time, police have raised legitimate concerns…

First the cartel cut its teeth with drug trafficking. Then avocados, real estate and construction companies. Now, a Mexican criminal group known for its brutality is moving in on seniors and their timeshares. The operation is relatively simple. Cartel employees posing as sales representatives call up timeshare owners, offering to buy their investments back for…

Facing increased threats to election workers and superheated political rhetoric from former President Donald Trump and his supporters, more states are considering firearm bans at polling places and ballot drop boxes ahead of November’s presidential election. This month, New Mexico became the latest state to restrict guns where people vote or hand in ballots, joining…