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Earlier this week, the New York City Police Department asked for people to share photos of themselves posing with police officers, tagging these images on Twitter with #myNYPD. Within a few hours, a stream of images depicting police brutality dominated the hashtag timeline, and the @NYPDnews account had no immediate response. While most of the morning-after media analysis focused on the online protest and questioning the initiative itself, the fate of this particular hashtag and others like it is not sealed. The most constructive reflection at present does not dwell on past mistakes, but rather accepts the challenge of an undecided future.

Crude oil is a natural material that is refined into gasoline, diesel fuel and other petrochemicals, and transported in all forms across North America. Pipelines are a common means of getting crude oil from one place to another, but rail is increasingly becoming the go-to transportation method for energy companies. This may be efficient for businesses, but it poses additional safety problems that affect civilians and first responders.

As advancements are made to manufacturing and technology, the strengths and shortcomings of military equipment shift, altering what a soldier is able to do in the field. Recently, the U.S. Army explored ways to change how they acquire, maintain and place stockpiles of equipment to enable a faster and more efficient response.

Each year, public safety professionals learn more about the complexities of firefighting. Technology has advanced with that knowledge, allowing first responders to capture critical data and use it to inform future calls. Faced with budgetary and personnel shortages that hamper management of that data, however, fire departments stand to benefit from adoption of cloud-based solutions. Taking on the burden of hardware and software maintenance, Software as a Service (SaaS) greatly mitigates the technical overhead for a firehouse. Cloud computing improves performance, increases access to important information, and lowers the total cost of ownership for software. For fire departments, that efficiency translates into more effective emergency response.

The introduction of the iPhone, and with it the smartphone revolution in 2007, has been both a boon and a bane for law enforcement. While apps and constant connectivity have enhanced police officers' productivity, the legal landscape surrounding society's use of these devices continues to evolve. The resulting uncertainty occasionally leads to makeshift policies, undesirable press coverage, and lengthy court battles. As the law in this domain solidifies, departments must be quick to recognize appropriate tactics and quickly adopt effective policies. A more pronounced area of smartphone jurisprudence centers around citizens recording on-duty police officers, which is now legal in every jurisdiction of the United States. Nevertheless, misunderstandings about two-party consent laws and wiretap statutes have resulted in a substantial number of improper arrests and detentions in recent years. As a result, departments have not only been responsible for more than $1 million in related settlements over the past three years, but have also faced heavy scrutiny by the public and in the media for these events. Through proactive training, departments have an opportunity to stop the bleeding of public trust and shape perception of law enforcement for the better.

The Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic controller training program overran costs four years in a row because it didn't properly outline training needs before issuing the program contract, a Dec. 18 Transportation Department inspector general report says. The overruns totaled about $89 million. In 2008, the FAA began developing the Air Traffic Control Optimum Training Solution meant to train thousands of new controllers the agency intends to hire by 2021.

Technology makes tasks exponentially easier and opens up opportunities to people around the world. However, innovation brings with it new areas of weakness. Data breaches or computer viruses can threaten any networked device, from a personal smartphone to enterprise server farms. This presents a major risk to organizations, as adoption of new technology can leave them susceptible to hackers.

Police psychologist Jack Digliani has just produced the 5th Edition of his Police and Sheriff's Peer Support Team Training Manual which he has always made available for free here on CopsAlive.com. He is also recommending that police officers agencies, and other law enforcement professionals consider doing an Annual Proactive Check-In. What is a Proactive Annual Check In? The Proactive Annual Check-In (PAC) provides police officers… and other agency employees with a confidential setting within which to share information about current life circumstances. It is a proactive program designed to offer a positive exchange thoughts, ideas, and information.

If State Police troopers want to do anything in their career, it's save a life. So when staff at Tufts Medical made the desperate call for troopers to escort Ryan Brooker's car into Boston, that his future depended on it, this became a story about State Police service, about doctors and nurses, and about a young man thankful to simply live his life again.

Envisage Technologies, a Bloomington, Indiana-based software company, announced today that it is a member of the Capstone Corporation Team that was one of seven companies presented an award of the Joint Force Development Services (JFDSS) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract valued at $877 million. This contract allows Team Capstone to compete for task orders requiring training, education and exercise solutions and services in support of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, Combatant Commanders, the Military Services, U.S. Government Federal agencies, and multinational partners.

A well-developed infrastructure can be the difference between citywide resilience and longstanding disorder. Notably, this infrastructure consists of both the coordination of first responders and the physical structures they need to support emergency work. Both of these components impact the way a city reacts to natural disasters or other severe weather disturbances. Understanding environmental and climatic patterns proves critical in preparing for weather disturbances and natural disasters. Often, severe weather accompanies shifts in climate but affects each region differently. Armed with this knowledge, city officials across the country are examining ways they can alter infrastructure to mitigate disaster and rapidly repair the damage it might cause.

Earlier this year, a Washington emergency services agency wrapped up its annual social media disaster preparedness game, the "30 Days, 30 Ways Preparedness Challenge." Created by the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA), the game invites participants to complete one simple task each day aimed at training people to be more prepared for an emergency. CRESA partners with local organizations to develop activities that foster conversations about preparedness between families, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Some businesses encourage employees to join the challenge to create a shared experience for their teams.

This past year brought about many triumphs for Envisage Technologies. The company continued to expand its partnerships and product features, further establishing itself as the leading software company for the public safety training and compliance industry. As we gear up for another successful year in 2015, Envisage takes a look back at three noteworthy milestones in 2014:

Canines play an important role in emergency response by assisting with search-and-rescue operations. Dogs employ superior senses to track down victims and reach locations that may be inaccessible for humans. Veterinary Partner noted that rescue teams need more trained dogs-and-handler pairs to share duties during emergencies and improve victims' chances for survival. Before they can be sent into the field, dogs must undergo standard search-and-rescue training. According to the National Association for Search & Rescue, it typically takes about one year of training for dogs to be ready to complete missions with their handlers. That shared experience can pave the way for both parties to quickly adopt new methods and equipment.

Whether you are a sworn law enforcement officer, EMS professional, corrections officer, or firefighter, being an effective public safety professional requires strong relationships with the public, the media, and each other. As high-profile incidents often bring to light, building and fostering these relationships is a challenge that requires constant attention by even the most congenial professionals. Thankfully, a body of psychological research around intergroup biases can explain not only why this tension between first responders, the public, and the media occurs, but how it can be overcome.

When first responders arrive on a fire scene, they face the unknown. From outside the structure, it is often difficult to predict the situation inside. Because this uncertainty impacts decisions about where to concentrate resources and how to approach and enter the scene, firefighters must prepare for a host of scenarios that can put them in harm's way. Under these circumstances, having more information can lead to a safer environment for firefighters and increase response efficiency. Technology can help responders become better informed as they approach a fire scene and increase the effectiveness of their initial entry. One way that firefighters now obtain this information is through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones. These devices extend the reach of firefighters by flying over a variety of hazardous scenes-including those with limited accessibility or excessive risk to humans-and providing valuable information to the responders below.

Car accidents and fires are obvious situations that may require a call to 911. For the most part, doing so does not increase risk for the caller. However, in cases of domestic abuse or abduction, calling 911 can put the victim in grave danger. In these situations, new technology that allows people to silently text to 911 can be life-saving. The National 911 Office is driving the planning and adoption of the text-to-911 service to make communicating with emergency services more dynamic. This begins the process of increasing accessibility and a push for public safety answering points (PSAP) to begin Next Generation 911 (NG911) implementation. Text-to-911 is an interim step between current systems used in PSAPs and NG911 implementation. While there is a national push to upgrade, it is a lengthy and expensive process that will initially limit the availability of the service.

Several months ago I taught a class on successful strategies and tactics for implementing on-line training and education. The class curriculum required a "status report" on the state of computer based training in public safety. In preparation for the class I conducted a web based survey of public safety trainers and senior staff officers. The reason for this specific group was to better understand and hear from trainers in the classroom and those in budget decision positions.