Public Safety Signals

Hello everyone, I just returned from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) technology conference in San Diego. There were thousands of chiefs, commanders and law enforcement professionals from the U.S. and abroad. After my own 32 years in the field it is very encouraging seeing the high tech, information sharing and intelligence systems [...]

On the night of September 12, 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston, Texas at approximately 2:00 am Central Time as a Category 2 hurricane. With sustained winds of 110 mph (1 mile an hour shy of a Cat3), this should not have been a major hurricane by Gulf of Mexico standards. However, Ike was [...]

While planning for National Preparedness Month (September), the United States Fire Administration (USFA) released a new report on August 20th which is the latest technical report in a series regarding being prepared. The report named Fire Department Preparedness for Extreme Weather Emergencies and Natural Disasters shares serious insights on not only keeping the fire department [...]

           Another terrible anniversary looms, one that we all wish had never happened. In September of 2001, the way we did our public safety jobs changed forever. We watched as planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. The day soon was dubbed “9/11”. This is a date [...]

I would like to welcome several public safety practitioner learners as they join as new authors of Public Safety Signals. These practitioners represent the first set of learners to join as authors on the blog. Melissa Beasley is a Police Captain from the Florence, AL Police Department, Darryl Jones Chief of the Pittsburg Bureau of [...]

I am proud to announce that Dr. Marian Mosser has joined the Capella public safety faculty team. Marian retired from the U.S. Army in 1997 at the rank of lieutenant colonel and during her career in the military she coordinated with FBI, CIA, NSA officials and foreign intelligence and security officials to investigate and deter [...]

A few months ago, we posted here that the United States Supreme Court was adjudicating a very important decision regarding firearms control policy in the case of Washington, D.C. v. Heller.
According to legal analysts, this ruling will have little effect on existing policies and laws.
The case centers around a local law in Washington, [...]

The debate over firearms control is enjoying yet another historical evolution as the United States Supreme Court is attempting to interpret and apply the Second Amendment in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The raging and eduring debate is focused on one phrase, and perhaps one comma in the twenty-seven word amendment: [...]

The unfortunate murder-suicide in which 6 persons were murdered on the campus of Northern Illinois University less than a year after the tragic incident at Virginia Tech University stokes the debate about campus security. College campuses, particularly those in suburban areas that are relatively open in terms of physical security.
The ideal is [...]

Tragically, a Los Angeles Police Department LAPD officer, Officer Randal Simmons, was murdered in the Line of Duty this past week while attempting to apprehend a man who was barricaded in his home after the man had murdered three family members.
Officer Randal Simmons was assigned to the elite SWAT Team of the [...]