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High altitude-based emergency communication system
Oceus Network will conduct a test of its emergency communication system in high altitude: it will place its 4G LTE Xiphos portable 4G LTE broadband network on a balloon which will carry Xiphos to near-space altitude; by placing an emergency communication system on an airborne platform, a zone of coverage is created to restore critical communications in the first hours after a catastrophic event
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NotiFind wins notification system award at DRI International 2012 Conference
SunGard Availability Services’s crisis communication tool NotiFind was named Notification System of the Year by the DRI International Commission; the company says that the award shows industry recognition of the solution as a tested emergency and incident notification system
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Movie-like emergency training system for law enforcement
Raytheon’s VIRTSIM law-enforcement training system employs licensed motion-capture technology similar to that used in movies such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Avatar,” and, most recently, “The Avengers”; the system is being offered to the law enforcement community as an affordable, twenty-first century alternative to outdated training practices that do little to replicate real-life situations
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NYC launches on-line auction of city fleet vehicles
New York City operates 27,000 vehicles and equipment pieces covering sixty city agencies; each year, up to 2,500 of these vehicles are replaced by newer equipment and sold by auction to the general public; now customers can access hundreds of desirable vehicles with the convenience of an online auction
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LoJack technology helps in two rescue efforts
Two services from LoJack allow police to rescue two young kids in a stolen car, and locate an 82-year olf man who wondered away from home
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Atlantic City deploys ShotSpotter
The Atlantic City, New Jersey, Police Department is deploying SST’s ShotSpotter Flexsolution to detect and locate gunfire incidents and gather gunfire intelligence
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Hughes shows Emergency Networking Solutions ahead of hurricane season
According to the National Hurricane Center, the 2011 hurricane season’s biggest event — Hurricane Irene — caused more than $15 billion in damage and killed forty-nine people; this year, projections are mixed, as meteorologists predict fewer named storms but greater proximity to the U.S. coastline
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Improving fast-moving mobile networks
Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) allow people in multiple, rapidly-moving vehicles to communicate with each other – a useful technology in for emergency-response situations or soldiers under fire; researchers have devised a method to improve the quality and efficiency of data transmission in these networks
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K-9 units from across the U.S. helped secure NATO Summit in Chicago
ATF K-9 teams from Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Texas helped secure the NATO Summit in Chicago this past weekend; on explosives-sniffing dog named Ithaca was also on duty; the dog is famous for his keen sense of smell that enables him to detect approximately 19,000 explosive odor combinations
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Surveillance and evidence capture tool comes to U.S.
Evidence collection, location data, surveillance, and illumination all rolled into one handheld torch is making its U.S. debut at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) and Exposition, Tampa Convention Centre, Florida, from 22 to 24 May 2012
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Panasonic shows wearable camera for law enforcement
Toughbook mobile computer and Toughbook Arbitrator digital video interoperability offer advantages to law enforcement and public safety agencies; adopting body-worn video solutions is a complement to in-car platforms providing video directly from the officer’s vantage point
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Direct-mail list company adds emergency responder mailing lists
The growing attention to preparing for, coping with, and recovering from natural and man-made disasters means that more government and private funds are allocated to emergency services, and more professionals are trained and hired to perform emergency-related services; direct-mail companies have noticed this trend
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Aussie emergency services industry continues to grow
Over the past five years, emergency services funding in Australia has been driven by population growth, which has led to an increase in demand for emergency services; emergency services industry will generate revenue of AUS$20.2 billion in 2011-12, an increase of 4.5 percent on the previous year
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FAA moves on integrating drones into U.S. airspace
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now allows a government public safety agency and first responders to operate drones weighing 4.4 pounds or less in the U.S. air space, but under certain restrictions: these drones should be used for training and performance evaluation, they must be flown within the line of sight of the operator, less than 400 feet above the ground, during daylight conditions, inside Class G (uncontrolled) airspace, and more than five miles from any airport or other location with aviation activities; the FAA says that if safety agencies then apply for a waiver, the agency will allow the operation of drones weighing up to twenty-five pounds
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City of Seattle Fire Department improving firefighter, EMS responses
New communication system allows Seattle Fire Department to use new voice, video, and wireless by providing secure and fast switching between multiple networks
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More headlines
The long view
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
By Trina West
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
Using Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires
Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.
Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
European Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
How Climate Change Will Affect Conflict and U.S. Military Operations
By Doug Irving
“People talk about climate change as a threat multiplier,” said Karen Sudkamp, an associate director of the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program within the RAND Homeland Security Research Division. “But at what point do we need to start talking about the threat multiplier actually becoming a significant threat all its own?”
The Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies
By Matthew Guariglia
From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.