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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.

Law enforcement agents are trained to handle a variety of life-threatening situations, from talking down a suspect wielding a weapon to evacuating large areas following a natural disaster. Even when officers are well prepared, certain situations may require the assistance of other professionals. These professionals become especially important when law enforcement agents engage people with severe mental illness (SMI). In the U.S., one in four adults experiences mental illness. For 9.3 million Americans the problems can be severe enough to impede their ability to act rationally. Most people suffering a mental illness are not violent, criminal or dangerous. Yet, they are ten times more likely to be incarcerated than committed to a state psychiatric hospital. Increasingly, police officers serve as the first line of contact when those living with mental illness are at their most disoriented.

Record levels of terrorist attacks and fatalities occurred worldwide in 2012, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism says. START released data for 2012 in its Global Terrorism Database, which now contains data on more than 113,000 attacks since 1970. 2012 saw 8,441 terrorist incidents, up from 5,009 the year before, which at the time was the most on record.

Mental illness has long been one of the most difficult health problems to diagnose. Because so many of the symptoms are hidden from sight, it is not easy to recognize when people need help. For police officers, this assessment is often made under stressful conditions, when an individual may present a danger to themselves or others. Faced with societal stigmas against mental illness, first responders struggle to marry sensitivity and safety.

"This is an example of great restraint and excellent police work in dealing with a mental health issue where the outcome could have been much different," Bob Gualtieri said. Sachse, 54, has been with the sheriff's office since March 17, 2004. He received Crisis Intervention Training the following year. The training is designed to teach deputies how to recognize mental health issues and to deal with them in the most effective manner, according to the sheriff's office.

The outcome of the year's flurry of gun control legislative activity was similarly mixed, as this timeline of some of the most headline-making bills - and the fallout from them - demonstrates.

The switch was thrown quietly in May 2012, hidden inside a 16-page directive, "Gang Violence Reduction Strategy," and largely ignored amid a 60 percent rise in murders in the first quarter alone. With less than a year on the job, McCarthy had already disbanded two special task forces, roving teams that muscled neighborhoods into submission. Now he was betting on what he calls "the next phase of community policing in this world": an emphasis not on the traditional "hot spots" for crime, but on the "hot people" who commit most criminal acts.

A fitness test is an effective and legal device for screening first responders, but only when designed and implemented in a particular way. Though some believe that the daily demands of public safety professionals are enough to maintain adequate levels of fitness, this is a faulty and dangerous assumption. Even though the most common tasks performed by first responders do not involve physical exertion, the primary goal of training and fitness should be to ensure that first responders are able to get to, control and remove a threat to public safety. Because individuals with poor fitness may be incapable of performing these essential tasks, departments with lax or no standards are at risk for lawsuits based on negligence and deliberate indifference. Implementing overly-stringent standards is hardly a panacea for a department's litigation woes. If standards are based on, relative to, or disparately impact members of a protected class, then rejected applicants may allege discrimination under state or federal law.

Law enforcement training requires a significant investment of resources. The time, money and manpower needed to conduct proper training practices can drain even the largest and most well-funded department. Training compliance is particularly difficult for agencies in smaller communities.

According to estimates from the National Fire Protection Association, there are over 1.1 million firefighters in the U.S. As of 2012, however, professional firefighters comprise the majority in only 15 percent of fire departments across the country. Approximately 70 percent of firefighters are volunteers. Volunteer firefighters are prevalent in the South and the Midwest, especially in rural areas lacking the resources to staff their departments with career firefighters. While these first responders possess skills sufficient to deal with most emergencies, there are instances when the lack of comprehensive firefighter training creates problems.

Emergency medical technicians perform one of the most critical jobs, but they also face a high degree of risk. In addition to the physical and health dangers that accompany each call, EMTs can easily find themselves in the center of legal disputes. Alarmingly, cases against them are often based on verbal accusations alone. To ensure that EMTs can remain legally defensible, certain services are now requiring their employees to wear body cameras. These cameras can document interactions with the public and provide a tangible record to be used in court, if necessary. As with every new technology, however, video cameras present challenges when integrating into an EMT's daily routine.

This past year was marked by innovative-sometimes controversial-technologies that promise to have significant impact on law enforcement agents, firefighters and EMTs. As first responder agencies begin to explore how they can integrate these new technologies into their operations, we revisit some of the most popular technology trends in 2014

The interests of public safety demand that law enforcement training programs should be continuously updated. Over the past few decades, federal and state authorities responded to this demand by passing legislation geared toward improving basic law enforcement training programs. This legislation intended to present officers with realistic challenges they may face and solutions they must employ in the line of duty. Within this real-life frame, individual departments can tailor their own local training strategies to provide the most effective tactics for their specific jurisdictions.

Have you ever tried to use your computer with your eyes closed? Even with a screen reader, it's incredibly challenging. The fact is, most computer applications are not designed with disabled users in mind. Trying to navigate the web using a screen reader gave me a new level of appreciation for the amount of effort Envisage Technologies, the company for which I work, has put into improving the overall 508 compliance of the Acadis® Readiness Suite. Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs run by federal agencies, programs that receive federal assistance, in federal employment, and in the employment practices of federal contractors. An amendment to Section 508 requires federal agencies to make electronic and information technology accessible in order to eliminate barriers in information technology and create new opportunities for people with disabilities. The Acadis Readiness Suite is an enterprise software application designed to streamline training management for first responders and other federal, state and local government agencies. While 508 compliance is a requirement for several of our customers, Customs and Border Protection made compliance a priority for this software suite. Their intent was to perform 508 compliance checks on Acadis, and our intent was to be prepared.

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.

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.

According to a Police Magazine survey, nearly 50 percent of police departments use K-9 teams. Due to the nature of their assignments-which can include tracking suspects, detecting narcotics, investigating suspected arson, and assisting in search-and-rescue efforts-these dogs and their handlers go through some of the most rigorous training of any first responders. When one of these specially-trained dogs alerts officers to the presence of contraband or tracks the scent of a suspect, police may be given probable cause to conduct a full search. If that search reveals something incriminating, a defendant may try to suppress the evidence by attacking the grounds for conducting the search. Since the reliability of a K-9 alert contributes directly to whether probable cause exists, these cases often explore the quality of training and training records to depths seldom reached in human-only cases. This body of law provides public safety professionals uniquely clear guidance on what constitutes best training practices for K-9 teams.