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How Technology Sabotaged Public Safety

Technology services are systematically, if invisibly, eroding long-won victories in public safety.

Take vaping. Much like Uber transformed the cab ride with smartphones, e-cigarettes have reinvented cigarette culture with a discreet new technology: a battery-powered stick that heats and aerosolizes nicotine (or sometimes cannabis)…

Meanwhile, e-cigarettes still deliver particulate matter and toxins into the lungs (just not as much as cigarettes do). Secondhand aerosol poses some risk to people in the proximity of e-cigarettes, which are often used indoors because the odorless vapor doesn’t seem harmful, like tobacco smoke.

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Featured

 8 Billion Reasons the Human Safety Crisis Needs Solving Now

At UL Research Institutes, we are committed to addressing three grand challenges that summarize many of the greatest human safety threats facing our global population today — challenges that only increase as our population grows. Let me explain.

 Prison Reform Is Undermining Public Health and Safety

The truth is the system of policing and incarceration that has been promoted as the centerpiece of U.S. “public safety” policy for the last half-century is, in reality, fundamentally incompatible with shared safety. This cannot be fixed through superficial bureaucratic rearrangements, such as hiring private contractors as short-term guards...

 Public Safety as a Matter of Public Health

Several studies have shown how inappropriate stops by law enforcement and racial profiling are linked to adverse mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

Articles of Interest

Armed police robots will be a threat to public safety. Here’s why

By allowing police to turn a specialized robot into a weapon, San Francisco is solving for a problem that does not meaningfully exist, and is making a genuinely non-lethal tool into a threat. It also sets a precedent for the arming of other machines, like inexpensive quadcopter drones, increasing the distance between police and suspects without leading to arrests or defused situations.

Crime and Violence

Any person can be affected by crime and violence either by experiencing it directly or indirectly, such as witnessing violence or property crimes in their community or hearing about crime and violence from other residents.

Do health and safety regulations go too far?

From banning kites to stopping sack races, has health and safety gone too far? Or does local government need the protection it offers?

Fossil fuels are causing a buildup of human health problems

Climate change has led to extreme heat, food shortages, and more.

How To Make The Public Safer? It's A Lot Harder Than Just Hiring More Police

In the wake of violence and tragedies, people are often left in search of ways to feel safe again. That almost inevitably to conversations about the role of police.

Our Worst Idea About “Safety”

A concept that took hold in the ’70s has haunted everything from seat belts to masks—and it’s going to keep putting us in danger.

Reimagining Public Safety and Health

One of the top priorities of local, state and federal leaders has always been the health and safety of America’s residents. However, from arrests to convictions to incarcerations to a de-emphasis on mental health, the nation’s approach to public safety and policing has often resulted in racial bias and discrimination, permeating all facets of the criminal justice system.

Violence against health care workers is on the rise. They deserve protection

There is no place for violence in civil society. Yet stabbings, shootings, threats and other violent attacks have become frighteningly common, including in America’s hospitals and other health care settings. As leaders of national associations representing hospitals and emergency physicians, we know the intimidation and violence endured by medical professionals every day. Making it a federal offense could help prevent it.

What does the ‘new normal’ look like for women’s safety in cities?

Women’s safety in public space is very complex. Women’s perception of safety – as opposed to their risk of experiencing gendered violence or crime – very much determines how they interact with public space. This issue of perception makes measuring and evaluating women’s experiences difficult.

Resources

National Public Safety Partnership

The National Public Safety Partnership (PSP) was established by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide an innovative framework to enhance federal support of state, local, and tribal law enforcement and prosecution authorities in enhancing public safety.

Public Safety News

Public Safety News (PSN) is a nonprofit news agency that consists of independent photojournalists, journalists, and action news enthusiasts passionate about capturing breaking news and bringing it to you. We also provide area newsrooms with footage and photographs of incidents and events rapidly. We use innovative tactics and technology to deliver stories faster to newsrooms and to you.