TechBeat January/February 2014

• NCJ Number: 244834
• Journal: Techbeat Dated: January/February 2014 Pages: 1-21
• Date Published: February 2014
• Length: 21 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2010-MU-MU-K020
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

Articles in this issue profile programs that involve safety training for reducing officer deaths, ways a Minnesota police department has embraced technology, Maryland's use of a managed approach to eliminating cell phone service in prisons, and police prevention of opiate drug overdose deaths.

Abstract

The "Below 100" initiative is a nonprofit volunteer effort intended to reduce the number of annual police line-of-duty deaths to below 100. The free training program is based on five tenets: Wear your belt; wear your vest; watch your speed; what's important now (situational awareness and decisionmaking); and remember complacency kills. Another article describes how the Richfield Police Department (Minnesota) stays informed on developments in technology by taking advantage of State and county programs and developing initiatives in-house. In considering technology, the RPD assesses what is available and decides on what is best for the officers in terms of efficiency and use for the benefit of the community. Among the technologies it has adopted are electronic ticket writing, electronic police reports, and electronic DWI charging and booking. Another article describes how the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services implemented a managed access project in the Metropolitan Transition Center in downtown Baltimore in April 2013. The system achieved an immediate drop in the number of contraband cell phones located in security sweeps. The system, its implementation, and effects are described. The concluding article describes how police officers in Quincy, MA, and Suffolk County, NY, have been using naloxone hydrochloride, also known as Narcan, to counter the effects of opiates and save the lives of people who would have otherwise died from an opiate drug overdose.