Criminal Justice Technology in the News

Law Enforcement News

Distracted Driving Simulator Comes to Pensacola State College
WEARTV, (03/19/2018), Kristie Henderson
A simulator showing the dangers of distracted and impaired driving was part of Pensacola State College's campus safety day. The simulator allows participants to experience the potential consequences of texting and driving and driving under the influence. Also on hand for the event were the Florida Highway Patrol, Pensacola Police, Escambia County EMS and Pensacola Fire Department.
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Police Asking Homeowners to Register Home Surveillance Cameras to Fight Crime
WCNC, (03/20/2018), Brandon Goldner
The Gaston County Police Department in North Carolina is asking homeowners to voluntarily register their home surveillance cameras so investigators can solve crimes quicker. Locations of the cameras will be mapped. Detectives will only use homeowners' cameras if they volunteer, and the department will not be able to remotely access the cameras.
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Three Universities Launch National Database to Track School Shootings
The Crime Report, (03/20/2018)
Three universities have created a national, open-source database to track school shootings and develop strategies for countering them. The partnership between John Jay College, the University of Texas at Dallas and Michigan State University, will track fatal shooting attacks that targeted K-12 students or teachers. It also includes cases that resulted in injuries but no deaths; domestic violence; workplace violence; and suicides on school grounds involving a firearm. The database will include data about all publicly known school shootings that resulted in at least one injury from 1990 to Dec. 31, 2016. It will be made public in the spring of 2019.
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MCC's Active Shooter Drill Prepares First Responders
WTOK, (03/21/2018), Perry Robinson
Meridian Community College in Mississippi was recently the scene of an active shooter drill. The training drill is held every other year to prepare law enforcement and paramedics for an emergency. Participating agencies included the MCC, Meridian and Marion police departments, and several other MCC departments. This is the fifth year the school has done disaster response training.
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DUI Exercises Show Students the Dangers of Drunk Driving
WJAC, (03/22/2018), Bridget McClure
Students at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania used simulators in a recent exercise to better understand what it is like to drive drunk. Students performed a series of tests including mock sobriety tests, a distracted driving simulator, and writing their names and completing puzzles while using impairment simulation goggles. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and members of law enforcement police helped set up the event.
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Washington State Plans Distracted Driving Enforcement Campaign
American Trucker, (03/27/2018)
More than 150 law enforcement agencies in Washington state will be out in force looking for distracted drivers during April 2 to 14. Under a state law termed "Driving Under the Influence of Electronics," drivers may not hold cell phones or watch videos while they are driving, stopped in traffic or at a stop light. It covers tablets, laptops, games or any other hand-held electronic devices; the law also restricts hands-free use to a single touch. Nearly 1,500 drivers have been ticketed each month since the law began in July 2017.
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Council Approves Upgrading Regional Emergency System
King County, (03/26/2018)
The Metropolitan King County Council in Washington state has approved a regional effort to upgrade and modernize the county's emergency communications system known as E911. Once implemented, the updated system network could support the transmission of text, photo and video-to-911, allow for better location identification, and receive automatic collision notification from vehicles and data from medical devices.
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Corrections News

Outside Experts Looking for Ways to Make NC Prisons Safer
WRAL, (03/20/2018), Laura Leslie
A new Prison Reform Advisory Board set up to advise the North Carolina Department of Public Safety on how to improve safety and security for prison workers held its first meeting in March. Department officials briefed the panel on changes that have already been made in the wake of five deaths last year. A corrections officer was beaten to death and four prison workers died in an attempted inmate escape. DPS has increased penalties for rules infractions by inmates, barred anyone convicted of a violent crime from working in prison industries that give them access to tools, increased hiring and training of corrections officers, and issued batons and stab-resistant shirts to more officers.
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Bill Would Ban Drones Near Prisons
Press Republican, (03/23/2018), Brian Molongoski for Watertown Daily Times
The New York state senate has passed a bill that would ban drone use within 1,000 feet of correctional facilities in an effort to thwart attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons. The restrictions would not apply to the operation of a drone approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial purposes. The bill has been sent to the state assembly.
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FDC Investigates After Drone Drops Contraband at Panhandle Prison
Pensacola News Journal, (03/24/2018), Emma Kennedy
Authorities are investigating two confirmed drops of contraband using drones at Florida prisons in the last 30 days. One of those drops was discovered at a Panhandle prison after correctional officers spotted the drone, which was delivering a cellphone and tobacco.
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Drone Flyovers Pose Problems for Southern Vermont Prison
Seven Days, (03/22/2018), Taylor Dobbs
The Vermont Department of Corrections wants the state legislature to pass legislation banning drone flights above prisons. Deputy Corrections Commissioner Mike Touchette recently told a senate committee that there have been about a dozen drones fly over the Southern State Correctional Facility in the last year. The committee subsequently approved a bill approved earlier in March by the Vermont House of Representatives that would limit how close drones can get to state correctional facilities. The bill now goes to the senate floor for consideration.
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Prison Deaths Are Piling up in S.C. -- Does Anybody Care?
The Post and Courier, Opinion, (03/24/2018), Steve Bailey
This opinion piece discusses inmate deaths in South Carolina correctional facilities caused by other inmates or suicide, and possible reasons contributing to the spike in violence.
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Education Opportunities in Prison Are Key to Reducing Crime
Center for American Progress, (03/02/2018), Kathleen Bender
This article discusses how increasing education programs in correctional facilities can benefit inmates and society in general by reducing recidivism and prison costs.
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A Smartphone-Based ‘Office' for Parole Agents
GCN, (03/19/2018), Sara Friedman
An app allows parole field agents to update case files from their smartphones. The Virtual Integrated Mobile Office (VIMO) app is a collaboration between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the San Diego County Probation Department. The app builds on the county's Probation Utility Mobile Application. Approximately 1,400 officers are currently using VIMO.
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WV Supreme Court: Complete Internet Restriction Violates 1st Amendment
Charleston Gazette-Mail, (03/18/2018), Lacie Pierson
The West Virginia Supreme Court has ruled it is a violation of the First Amendment to completely restrict a person's access to the Internet as a condition of parole from prison, and that such restrictions must be tailored based on the nature of a person's crime. In an opinion handed down March 12, the justices ruled it was unconstitutional for the state parole board to revoke a man's parole because his girlfriend had a computer with Internet access that he didn't use.
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The New Frontier of E-Carceration: Trading Physical for Virtual Prisons
Electronic Frontier Foundation, (03/22/2018), Stephanie Lacambra
This opinion article on electronic monitoring discusses concerns over its use and the need for more regulation and oversight.
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