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.

Over the past few years, cybersecurity has grown into a major concern for federal government and law enforcement. Two-thirds of federal CIOs and CISOs place cybersecurity as one of their top priorities, and FEMA listed it among its five core capabilities in the organization's latest preparedness report. Although high-profile data breaches involve larger organizations, there is growing concern that smaller agencies will be targeted with greater frequency in the future.

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.

Over the past two years, people adopted smart technology with increasing frequency. According to the Pew Research Center, half of American adults today own a tablet or e-reader. First responders are among the professional groups who have found ways to integrate these devices into their day-to-day operations. As tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices enter the public safety scene, however, agents must not only familiarize themselves with their use, but also understand their benefits and drawbacks.

Law enforcement agencies depend on new technology to help them ensure public safety. One such innovation is virtual firearms training, a practice facility that replaces traditional guns with digital ones. Several agencies across the U.S. are exploring use of virtual firearms training to save costs, increase efficiency and flexibility, and dramatically lower the risks to officers.

Typically the work of science fiction, a zombie apocalypse has proven an effective way to engage citizens in disaster preparedness. Dispersing instructions within entertaining stories about the living dead, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention runs successful campaigns with this theme in order to share insights about how to brace for natural disasters. Getting residents prepared for emergencies helps trained first responders to become more effective in their own response within a community.

Community policing is a widely-adopted model put into practice for nearly 40 years. The concept stemmed from a desire to address community concerns about rising crime rates through increased citizen involvement. To strengthen relationships with their constituents and improve their own reputations, police officers asked for assistance in solving and preventing crimes in the area. Recent advancements in technology are altering the ways in which law enforcement agencies can incorporate community policing into their operations. By providing an easier and more efficient way for people to report crime and share information, social networks like Facebook and Twitter significantly impact how well police connect with people. Software for mobile devices facilitates and eases communication both internal and external to a department. Officers who master these digital tools may increase the effectiveness of community policing in their jurisdictions.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 changed airport security forever. Many of the policies put in place in the aftermath of those terrorist attacks persist today. Agents from the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration, in particular, are tasked with following those directives to ensure safety at airports. However, a series of high-profile incidents-such as a November 2013 shooting of a TSA officer at a Los Angeles airport-raised concerns that airports lack sufficient manpower, training and resources to adequately prepare these personnel for that assignment.

Envisage Technologies, the leading software company for the public safety training and compliance industry, announced that it received a major investment led by Armory Capital, a family investment office. Financial terms were not disclosed. Envisage will use the new capital to solidify the company's position as the dominant training and compliance software platform in the law enforcement and public safety sector. Envisage Technologies is the developer of the Acadis Readiness Suite®; the only training ecosystem platform focused on the needs of public safety. The new funding also will enable Envisage to accelerate its rollout of FirstForward, the Nation's first secure professional learning network for first responders.

From depleted resources to toppling buildings, natural disasters can wreak havoc on communities. Some areas are more prone to particular weather-such as tornadoes, hurricanes or blizzards-while other regions see little need to plan for such catastrophes. When extreme weather impacts cities with large, unprepared populations, the opportunity for devastation increases. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the city spent years addressing the damage brought about by the disaster. Almost 10 years later, New Orleans is still recovering. To prevent other cities from suffering the same fate, several organizations have banded together to emphasize the importance of citywide resilience.

Prior to a disaster, public safety officials try to equip residents with the proper information and resources to survive catastrophe. Some communities are cultivating a volunteer-driven response by training citizens how to act during an emergency. These initiatives-such as the Citizen Preparedness Corps in New York, Operation Rescue Ready in Virginia and FEMA's Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)-are intended to help communities withstand the interim between disaster and the arrival of first responders.

First responders can struggle to gain experience with large-scale emergencies, such as terrorism and natural disasters, due to their rare and unpredictable occurrence. Live simulations are an effective means of preparing rescue workers to navigate these events, but agencies are often deterred from conducting disaster simulations by financial constraints and concerns for the safety of both civilians and officers. To overcome these challenges, organizations are investing in large multi-purpose facilities as a way to ensure more public safety workers can train for the complex and massive events they may encounter in the field. - See more at: http://www.envisagenow.com/large-scale-training-facilities-prepare-responders-for-real-world-disasters/#sthash.TQhfsK4H.dpuf

There is no scientific evidence that hot weather causes crime, but experts have found strong correlations between rising temperatures and more frequent violent crime. To keep the public safe, officers must be aware of this relationship and anticipate how resource availability and workload may change in the 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.

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.

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.

When law enforcement agents head into an interrogation room, they are tasked with getting to the truth of an investigation. They must do so while protecting themselves and the rights of the individuals they are questioning. Since the early 1900s, federal agencies were banned from using audio records of suspect statements without special approval. More than a century later, however, the U.S. Department of Justice changed that policy, mandating that federal agencies record video of all interrogations of suspects in custody, whenever possible.

In early April, a North Carolina man by the name of Frank Arthur Janssen was kidnapped from his home. Within a few days, law enforcement agencies pinpointed the victim's location through a coordinated search effort. Janssen was ultimately rescued from an Atlanta apartment by an elite counterterrorist unit, the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team.

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.

Wearable tech is emerging as a potential resource for law enforcement agencies. New tools like Google Glass can be used in the field as an effective way of protecting officers by providing information and communication support, as well as documenting procedures for use in court. These innovations are not limited to law enforcement, though; firefighters also employ wearable technology. Across the nation, fire departments are investing in small cameras that can withstand high temperatures. These devices are mounted on a helmet to record exactly what a firefighter sees on a scene. Once captured, the information provides opportunities for potential gains in firefighter and fire victim safety.