Public Safety

Biden Calls For ‘Red Flag’ Gun Law, Increased Local Violence Prevention Grants

President Biden said U.S. gun violence is an “embarrassment” as he announced a series of actions to tighten firearms regulations.

  • By Andrea Noble

Survey: 22% of Americans Have Experienced a Hate Crime

Although Americans of all races report experiencing hate crimes, Black and multiracial people experienced the most and white respondents the least, according to a new report.

  • By Brent Woodie

The Court is Now in (Virtual) Session: How Remote Services are Transforming the Judicial System

COMMENTARY | The judicial system has been slow to adopt technologies, but the Covid-19 crisis has initiated a digital transformation that is here to stay.

  • By Daniel Stewart

Georgia Senate Approves Bill to Ease Gun Restrictions

The bill, which comes just two weeks after mass shootings at spas in the Atlanta area, would allow people from outside Georgia to carry concealed weapons in the state.

  • By Brent Woodie

America’s Rural-Jail-Death Problem

Every day, in small towns and cities across the country, thousands of people are booked into local jails, many for minor crimes. Some never come home.

  • By Katie Rose Quandt, The Atlantic
Sponsor Content

New Tools Help State and Local Governments Battle Ransomware, Other Big Disasters

When governments find themselves being ransomed, their choices are typically to pay, which will undercut their ability to deliver key services to their communities due to budget restrictions, or not pay, resulting in the immediate inability to serve their communities and the loss of key data that will inevitably plague them for years afterwards.

  • Presented by Veeam

Why America's Great Crime Decline Is Over

COMMENTARY | Even before the recent mass shootings, violent crime was surging to its highest rate in 30 years. Patrick Sharkey illuminates what's happening.

  • By Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

Miami Beach Extends Curfew, State of Emergency as Visitors Swamp South Florida

City officials called an emergency meeting Sunday in Miami Beach to discuss mitigation measures for throngs of unruly gatherers after a week of arrests, fights and crowd-control headaches.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Atlanta Shootings Fuel Fear Over Rising Anti-Asian Violence

More than 3,800 reports of anti-Asian discrimination or bias have been reported over the last year.

  • By Andrea Noble

Model Warns of New Mosquito Invasion in Florida

COMMENTARY | Now that the disease-transmitting mosquito Aedes scapularis has invaded the Florida peninsula, researchers have come up with a method to predict where conditions may be most suitable for its spread.

  • By Lourdes Rodriguez, Futurity

More Pedestrians Are Getting Killed By Cars

The number of pedestrians struck and killed is up 45% over the last decade. People of color and residents of low-income and rural communities are more at risk, according to new research.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Chicago Ballparks Will Reopen to Limited Number of Fans

The city will allow about 8,000 people to attend upcoming Cubs and White Sox baseball games.

  • By Brent Woodie

A Bolder Way To Tweet About Boulders: How A Traffic Alert Typo Rocked the Internet

On Jan. 27, 2020, San Miguel, Colorado Sheriff's Office PIO Susan Lilly tweeted a warning of a highway obstruction: a "large boulder the size of a small boulder." The rest is internet history.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram
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After a Wave of Violent Threats Against Election Workers, Georgia Sees Few Arrests

For nearly a year, election administrators across the country weathered the pandemic while facing attacks and threats — leading many officials to resign or retire. In Georgia, little was done to prevent it from happening again.

  • By Sonam Vashi, ProPublica

A Las Vegas Judge Approves $1.4 Million Payment to Wrongfully Convicted Man Who Served More Than Two Decades

Fred Steese, who spent decades behind bars for murder — despite the fact that Nevada state prosecutors had documents showing he was in another state at the time of the crime — will receive cash, fees and a certificate of innocence.

  • By Megan Rose, ProPublica

This New Advancement in Interpreting DNA Evidence Could be a Game Changer

COMMENTARY | Probabilistic genotyping software has helped forensic labs close more cases and exonerate individuals wrongly accused of a crime.

  • By Bruce Budowle

Lawyers Who Were Ineligible to Handle Serious Criminal Charges Were Given Thousands of These Cases Anyway

In the only state with no public defenders, people charged with murder and other serious crimes can get assigned attorneys who are legally ineligible to take on their cases. The state claims it was unaware.

  • By Samantha Hogan and Agnel Philip, ProPublica

Texas Plants Released Nearly as Much Pollution During Winter Storm as During Hurricane Laura

Oil refineries, chemical plants and other industrial operators emitted 3.5 million pounds of excess pollution during the winter storm and power crisis in Texas, according to an analysis of company notices provided to state regulators.

  • By Erin Douglas, The Texas Tribune

‘It Doesn’t Feel Worth It’: Covid Is Pushing New York’s EMTs to the Brink

Emergency medical services work has long been grueling and poorly paid. Covid-19 has added stress and new risks for workers in the profession.

  • By Martha Pskowski, Kaiser Health News

One month in, How Biden Has Changed Disaster Management and The U.S. Covid-19 response

COMMENTARY | The Biden administration is re-empowering key federal agencies to return to the roles and responsibilities they were designed for within a planned national disaster management framework.

  • By Brian J. Gerber and Melanie Gall, The Conversation

Texans Running Out of Food as Weather Crisis Disrupts Supply Chain

Texans running low on food are finding empty grocery store shelves. Food pantries are running out of supplies. And the freeze has wiped out substantial portions of the state's citrus and vegetable crops.

  • By Julián Aguilar and Duncan Agnew, The Texas Tribune

'We’re in It Alone': Power Outages Leave Millions of Texans Desperate for Heat and Safety

Texas residents said the storm — and ensuing partial collapse of the state's power system — sapped what mental reserves they had left after eleven months of a global health crisis that has cost thousands of jobs and claimed more than 40,000 lives in the state.

  • By Shannon Najmabadi and Marissa Martinez, The Texas Tribune