The City of Milwaukee is creating a detailed smart city plan after deploying several smaller Internet of Things initiatives over the last couple of years.

A bill filed last month with the California Senate for the 2017 legislative session would prohibit the acquisition of new surveillance technology without local government approval, as well as require all law enforcement agencies to submit a comprehensive Surveillance Use Policy.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology recently released the 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced a $30 million grant for broadband technology research and development for first responders.

Fayetteville, N.C., is turning to an online app to monitor the performance of the city’s services and programs. TRACStat, a new publicly available application, will report key performance indicators, such as performance data, budget and financial data, and updates for strategic projects across the city. The new app is replacing semiannual printed reports or static documents posted on a website.

The state of Michigan would not be able to recover its information systems or sustain its businesses processes if it were hit by a cyberattack, according to Michigan’s auditor general.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on Dec. 13 hosted a live demonstration of patient applications that import data from health IT vendors. These apps give patients access to a consolidated list of their medications from a variety of sources.

The California secretary of state has improved access to more than 5.3 million records related to corporations, limited liability companies, and limited partnerships through the creation of a new Business Search Tool, which allows citizens to have online access to data that was previously available only through in-person or mail requests.

With a rise in public mistrust of police forces in cities across the country, many police departments have been refocusing their efforts on community policing to re-establish public trust.

On the same day as the first snow of the season, the city of Seattle announced its “Let It Snow!” hackathon. The city is hoping to tap technology users, designers, and developers for a community design workshop on how city officials communicate with the public during snow-related emergencies.