top of page
Latest News
Vienna Smash-and-Grab Leaves $4.3 Million Necklace Gone in Minutes
Two unmasked men bought tickets to Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, smashed a display case with a hammer during opening hours on 27 August, and fled with Queen Nazli’s platinum Van Cleef & Arpels necklace. The piece is set with 673 diamonds totaling more than 200 carats and sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2015 for $4.3 million. Cameras recorded the attack. The suspects remain at large. One was reported to have been carrying a firearm. No one was injured. What daylight thefts ex
Sarah o'Neill
Oct 202 min read
Hospitals, Liability and AI: Athena Security Bets on Integrated Screening
Violence in healthcare facilities is on the rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies hospitals as having the highest rate of workplace violence, and the American Hospital Association estimates the annual cost of related incidents exceeds $18 billion. With California now requiring hospitals to install weapons detection systems by 2027, regulatory pressure is accelerating adoption. Athena Security is positioning itself as a beneficiary of that trend. Co-founder and CTO C
Paula Vettori
6 hours ago2 min read
Opinion: The Screening Problem Most Facilities Are Still Getting Wrong
Security directors are under more pressure than at any point in recent memory. Violence in healthcare settings is accelerating. Schools are operating under new legislative mandates with real enforcement mechanisms. Cultural institutions and public venues are contending with threat environments that would have seemed extreme a decade ago. The investment in physical security is following that pressure upward, and yet a significant number of facilities are still deploying techno
Peter Evans, CEO of Xtract One Technologies
9 hours ago3 min read
Surveillance & CCTV
From Cameras to Decisions: AI Video Analytics Is Reshaping Security Operations
For decades, the basic architecture of physical security remained largely unchanged. Cameras recorded footage, operators watched screens and incidents were investigated after the fact. Even in large security operations centers supervising hundreds or thousands of cameras, most systems still relied on motion alerts and manual review to determine whether something meaningful was happening. Artificial intelligence is beginning to change that model. Across enterprise security env
Ellie Goldman
1 day ago4 min read
Security Automation Speeds Detection, Not Decisions
The operational calculation matters because automated deterrence measures carry immediate costs when triggered incorrectly, while hesitation creates security gaps. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented P...
Freddie Bolton
5 days ago3 min read
Proactive Security or Buzzword? Industry Pushes Perimeter-First Strategy into 2026
The push toward proactive, perimeter-focused security is gaining real traction going into 2026, especially across retail and multi-site environments. Instead of concentrating mainly on what happens inside the store, more operators are trying to detect and stop incidents before they even reach the door. As a journalist covering the security space, hundreds of companies have pitched me stories about how AI and analytics are transforming loss prevention. What stands out now is a
Sarah o'Neill
Oct 112 min read
Airport & Border Control
Paul Epstein
Oct 12
Sarah o'Neill
Oct 3
Emergency & Disaster Response
K-12 Security Still Struggles With Fragmentation Despite New ANSI Standard
Schools in the United States face the same challenge year after year: how to keep campuses safe without turning them into fortresses. From physical access controls to behavioral threat assessments, districts are juggling budget gaps, political scrutiny, and community pushback over the right mix of measures. Into this landscape, ASIS International has released a new ANSI-approved school security standard, billed as the first comprehensive framework for K-12 in the U.S. The sta
Paula Vettori
Sep 252 min read
From School Shootings to Stadium Safety: AI-Driven Screening Is the Next Layer of Physical Security
The new school year in the United States has opened with grim numbers: 47 shootings on K–12 grounds so far in 2025. That reality is driving districts to look for security measures that move faster than traditional checkpoints but avoid turning campuses into fortress-like spaces. Toronto-based Xtract One is one of the firms stepping into that demand. Its screening systems are designed to let students walk through carrying laptops and backpacks while software sorts routine item
Ellie Goldman
Sep 182 min read
Minneapolis School Shooting Highlights Critical Role of Tactical Maps for First Responders
The Minneapolis tragedy has once again pushed parents and educators to confront the ongoing crisis of school safety in America. During morning Mass, a 23-year-old gunman opened fire, killing two children and wounding more than 20 others before taking their own life. While many schools now look to sensors, cameras, and monitoring systems to detect threats, another piece of the puzzle is ensuring first responders have the right information the moment they arrive. Delays in loca
Sarah o'Neill
Aug 92 min read
Policing Tech
A Night with Drones and Digital Footprints: Two Policing Tech Stories That Hit Home
We've all seen the slick demos—hovering drones, predictive analytics, AI dashboards. But until you've watched one of those drones skip traffic jams and land a suspect in under two minutes, it’s all theory. I’ve seen two recent real-world deployments that remind security pros why relevance trumps hype. 1. The Drone That Lights the Way—Laredo, Texas In Laredo, I rode along as the local PD dispatched a BRINC drone before officers even draped on their jackets. Within 30–60 second
Freddie Bolton
2 days ago2 min read
Offline-First Design And AI Workflows Reshape Body-Worn Camera Operations
As law enforcement agencies expand body-worn camera deployments, operational realities are shifting from simple video capture to resilient data management, interoperability, and post-incident automation. With high-volume footage, variable connectivity, and rising public transparency demands, system architecture increasingly determines whether evidence workflows remain reliable under stress. Modern deployments assume that connectivity will fail at critical moments. In distribu
Paula Vettori
Sep 273 min read
In the Field With Policing Tech: Two Systems That Actually Changed the Job
I’ve seen plenty of flashy demos in my career—slick PowerPoints about “next-gen policing” that never make it past the pilot phase. But every so often, you run into tech that actually shifts the ground under your feet. Two deployments I watched up close prove how different the outcomes can be when the tools work and when leadership backs them up. Case 1: License Plates That Talk Back A few years ago, I was working with a neighbourhood security committee in Fort Worth when they
Freddie Bolton
Jul 312 min read
HLS
Homeland Tech in Focus: Cell Towers, AI and Smart 911 Response
A fresh alarm has rung through U.S. government ranks: nearly two dozen FEMA IT personnel—including top CISOs—have been fired following a massive cybersecurity breach. The action was taken by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who blamed a failure to deploy basic safeguards like multifactor authentication. This stark reminder of systemic vulnerability throws homeland security tech providers into sharp relief—who they are, what they guard, and how they’re shaping resilience at the nati
Ellie Goldman
Oct 132 min read
Perimeter Security Balances Response Speed and False Alarms
# Perimeter Security Systems Balance Automated Response Against False Alarm Costs According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 94 to 98 percent of alarm calls turn out to be false, a reality ...
Paul Epstein
Sep 152 min read
Sensor Architecture Targets False Alarms in Active Threats
Security teams face severe operational tension when configuring active shooter protocols. They must balance the need for immediate emergency notifications against the operational cost of initiating false alerts. When deterrence measures tri...
Ellie Goldman
Sep 153 min read
Hospitals, Liability and AI: Athena Security Bets on Integrated Screening
Violence in healthcare facilities is on the rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies hospitals as having the highest rate of workplace violence, and the American Hospital Association estimates the annual cost of related incidents exceeds $18 billion. With California now requiring hospitals to install weapons detection systems by 2027, regulatory pressure is accelerating adoption. Athena Security is positioning itself as a beneficiary of that trend. Co-founder and CTO C
Paula Vettori
6 hours ago2 min read
Opinion: The Screening Problem Most Facilities Are Still Getting Wrong
Security directors are under more pressure than at any point in recent memory. Violence in healthcare settings is accelerating. Schools are operating under new legislative mandates with real enforcement mechanisms. Cultural institutions and public venues are contending with threat environments that would have seemed extreme a decade ago. The investment in physical security is following that pressure upward, and yet a significant number of facilities are still deploying techno
Peter Evans, CEO of Xtract One Technologies
9 hours ago3 min read
48,000 Lockdown Messages. 32 Active Shooter Ones
A notification that commits a building cannot be unsent. Once the speakers fire and the phones light, staff have already moved and responders are en route. The cost of a false alert is an evacuation that did not need to happen and trust that erodes the next time. That is why the decision itself stays manual even when everything around it is automated. Daily Notifications Prove the Paths Terry Swanson, president and chief executive of Singlewire Software, said in written comme
Paula Vettori
Oct 134 min read
bottom of page