With the purpose of enabling safe and resilient communities, the American Red Cross is extending its partnership with BlackBerry. BlackBerry will donate its BlackBerry AtHoc software to the Red Cross to help power its mission to provide emergency assistance, disaster relief and disaster preparedness education to all people in need. 

The National Retail Federation (NRF) will be hosting the NRF PROTECT ALL ACCESS, a free, four-day online event taking place September 22 – 25, 2020, featuring dynamic speakers, a virtual expo highlighting 75 retail security collaborators and networking opportunities catered to the retail security community. With 16 sessions spanning topics from talent and culture to theft and fraud to cyber and digital crime, attendees will have access to the latest information for the loss prevention, asset protection and cyber risk communities.

The American Crime Prevention Institute (ACPI) and SecureBI have partnered to bring online crime prevention training and certification courses to law enforcement agencies and security professionals across the country.

The FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report, January–June, 2020, reveals overall declines in the number of violent crimes and property crimes reported for the first six months of 2020 when compared with figures for the first six months of 2019. The report is based on information from 12,206 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six months of comparable data for both years to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

In an effort to substantially improve the safety and security of Jewish communal institutions across the greater New York area, the Community Security Initiative (CSI) and the Community Security Service (CSS) announced an operational partnership that will synchronize field operations, coordinate deployments of volunteers, share intelligence, and conduct both joint training and joint tabletop exercises. CSI is a joint initiative of UJA-Federation of New York and Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY).

Two new public safety committees were created this month by University of Utah Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch and appointed by U President Ruth Watkins. The Public Safety Advisory Committee and the Independent Review Committee are comprised of students, faculty, and staff from across the institution and are designed to ensure a broad representation of constituents are included in public safety decision-making.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that 80% of drug overdoses between January 2019 and June 2019 involved one or more opioids, with three in four deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl.

In the 19 years that have passed since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have seen significant increases in counterterrorism security in public venues, including more security guards, closed-circuit TV cameras, metal detectors and bag checks. A study by the USC Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) finds out that people are still willing to pay more for increased security at public venues almost two decades later.

To help Project 25 (P25) users navigate the continuing evolution of P25 systems and the complex world of P25 Standards, the P25 Steering Committee, with support from CISA, developed the Statement of Project 25 User Needs (SPUN) as a framework for users to better understand P25 technologies and define their communications needs.

DHS and CISA joined the Colorado Rockies, along with the Rockies’ state, local and federal partners for a virtual tabletop exercise to review incident preparedness measures and response plans at Coors Field in a continuing effort to ensure fan, staff and team safety.