Tag Archives: Boston

Department Spotlight: Health and Human Services

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In its work to "enhance the health and well-being of all Americans," the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees more than 100 programs across 13 agencies. Ten of these agencies are focused on public health, with three having human services as their main mission.

Across all of these agencies, there is a shared focus on the secure and ethical use of technology to improve public health and wellbeing. In 2023, HHS had an IT budget of $8.5 billion. Despite this spending, HHS has struggled to meet federal requirements. It did not score well on a cybersecurity audit, partly due to a lack of coordination among the operating units. Continue reading →

Building the Case for Digital Evidence

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Every crime has digital evidence, whether it's a suspect's cell phone, a witness's cell phone video, camera footage from a doorbell, a fitness tracker, or data from any number of IoT devices and sensors. This wealth of digital data is both an asset and a challenge for law enforcement. Six out of ten professionals now rank digital evidence as more important than DNA evidence. However, the sheer volume of digital evidence--the average device holds 60,000+ messages, 32,000+ images, and 1,000+ videos--provides challenges for understaffed teams that often rely on manual processes to review these valuable assets.

As digital evidence continues to grow in volume and importance, law enforcement agencies across the nation are looking for ways to more efficiently review, manage, and secure this critical asset. Continue reading →

3 Ways Public Safety is Utilizing Cutting Edge Technology

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In an effort to continue to keep us safe, law enforcement and other first responders are embracing and responding to the implementation of new technologies. In this post we'll take a look at three technology areas impacting how law enforcement carries out their mission - video, autonomous vehicles, and Internet of Things.

Video Improves Transparency and Public Collaboration

Body and dash cameras were originally introduced in the United Kingdom in 2005, followed by large-scale implementation in the United States in 2014. Their wide application was designed to "make police services more transparent and officers more accountable." The technology has proven its worth. For example, only 2.1% of citizen complaints filed in Chicago between 2010 and 2016 resulted in a disciplinary action against police officers, according to the Invisible Institute. Part of this was due to the fact that investigations were carried out internally by police departments with little outside input. A recent study found that today, with the use of video evidence, police officers are 64% more likely to be subject to disciplinary action after a complaint investigation.

Recording the footage is only part of the solution to best using video. That footage must also be widely distributed to help in identifying suspects. In doing so, departments have to be mindful of privacy issues of others who may have been recorded. Video redaction can be a time consuming process that wastes valuable hours. Today, departments are utilizing AI-enabled redaction cutting the process down to minutes.

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