October 2017

Virtual Training for Active Shooter Incidents Available for First Responders

A virtual training platform for active shooter and other critical incidents is available to first responders through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). The Enhanced Dynamic Geo-social Environment (EDGE) is a multiplayer, scalable, online environment which trains responders, single agencies or cross agency, jurisdiction, or discipline for a coordinated response to active shooter incidents. EDGE allows responders to collaboratively role-play complex scenarios in a virtual environment, improving…


Drivers Think Distracted Driving Is Causing More Accidents than Driving Drunk, but a Surprising Number Claim to Be Good at It

Drivers under 35 are ten times more likely than drivers 55 and older to think they can safely text and drive. PR Newswire CLEVELAND, Sept. 6, 2017 A new Progressive Insurance study shows about one third of drivers feel confident in their own ability to text and drive, yet the majority believe distracted driving is the biggest cause of auto accidents and more than 90% say it should be illegal. The starkest difference in attitudes is between younger and older…


65 Law Enforcement Line of Duty Deaths in First Half of 2017

Traffic-related Incidents Are Leading Cause of Officer Fatalities, Increasing 24 Percent Recently, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund issued a new report with preliminary data through June 30, 2017, revealing that 65 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty in 2017 – a 30 percent increase over the same period last year (50). Of these 65 officers, 26 were killed in traffic-related incidents, 23 were killed by gunfire and 16 died due to other causes…


DEA Resource Guide on Drugs

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has released the 2017 edition of Drugs of Abuse, A DEA Resource Guide. The guide is designed to be a reliable resource on the most commonly abused and misused drugs in the United States. The guide provides science-based information about the harms and consequences of drug use, describing a drug’s effects on the body and mind, overdose potential, origin, and legal status. The 2017 edition updates the 2015 Drugs of Abuse publication with the most…


Resources to Keep the Nation’s Schools Safe

Visit SchoolSafetyInfo.org, the Justice Technology Information Center’s school safety Web site, to download the latest volume in the Sharing Ideas and Resources to Keep Our Nation’s Schools Safe! series. Volume 5 includes all articles posted to www.schoolsafetyinfo.org from June 2016 through June 2017. You can learn about programs as diverse as a successful youth court program in North Carolina, an easy to replicate reverse checkout procedure used in rural Alabama and new best practices for school resource officers from the…