Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced the launch of the Bmore Connected campaign intended to expand in-home broadband access across the city. The new campaign will be spearheaded by the Baltimore City Office of Information and Technology’s (BCIT) Office of Broadband and Digital Equity (BDE).

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced he is allocating $3.2 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs (MORP) towards modernizing government services and improving service performance and equity.

The Baltimore City Council unanimously passed legislation to provide $3 million in emergency funding towards Internet access and computer equipment for the city’s children.

Following a successful ransomware attack against the city earlier this year, Baltimore, Md. has purchased $20 million in cybersecurity insurance.

The City of Baltimore hired former Intel executive Frank Johnson as its new CIO and chief digital officer. Along with the new hire, Baltimore has also expanded the CIO’s job description–and salary. Johnson will be now be tasked with modernizing the city’s computer systems across agencies, tackling the city’s reliance on paper, and ensuring data security, as well as working on mayoral initiatives. 

Baltimore’s new Cyber Range is hoping to tackle the 200,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in this country with cutting-edge, hands-on training. Earlier this month, Baltimore Cyber Range and Cyberbit, a provider of cybersecurity training and simulation platforms, opened the Baltimore Cyber Range cybersecurity training and simulation center.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to deploy two devices that will collect weather-related transportation data.

One in two American adults is in a law enforcement facial recognition database, which has the potential to disproportionately affect people of color, according to a report released by the Center for Privacy and Technology at the Georgetown University law school. A coalition of 52 civil liberties groups wrote a letter to the Justice Department, expressing their concern that facial recognition systems disproportionately affect communities of color.

As policing methods come increasingly under fire by the public, cities across the country are looking to digital methods to improve outcomes and bolster public trust. By 2030, the typical North American city will rely heavily on Artificial Intelligence technologies for public safety and security, according to a recent report from Stanford University.

Civil liberties groups filed a complaint against the Baltimore Police Department on Tuesday, asking the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the department’s use of cellphone tracking devices, which are used in 24 states and the District of Columbia. The Baltimore police, along with other law enforcement agencies, are using stingrays, which are devices that mimic […]