The health, safety and security challenges that business owners and managers have faced in 2020 have made one thing very clear: COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for a flurry of investments designed to spur the reopening of retail stores, commercial office space and public venues. Such investments don’t need to be singularly focused on opening the doors, but instead can be part of a more sustainable solution that can offer long-term value and flexibility that can be applied to a variety of situations. This is where smart security cameras connected to the IoT can help.

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.

Data Center Security is far more just implementing Access Control Lists (ACL) on a router and firewalls. Physical colocation requires a minimum of “five rings of security.” These five security features are a must for all colocation providers and cover public spaces from the perimeter all the way to the individual server housings.

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded $10 million to 29 select projects to support the development of a nationwide Terrorism and Targeted Violence Prevention (TVTP) Framework. These awards were made through a competitive process under the Fiscal Year 2020 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program.

To meet modern day challenges and address the evolving retail bank landscape, Origin Bank embraces innovative technology and solutions that boost efficiencies, reduce fraud and enhance service. The organization considers the protection of its clients’ assets to be paramount and strives to deliver a safe banking experience.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) announced nearly $50 million in school safety funding through its School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP). SVPP provides up to 75% funding for school safety measures in and around primary and secondary schools and school grounds.

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).