First Responders

City tackles first responders’ opioid compassion fatigue

When physically and emotionally exhausted emergency personnel started saying, “Let them die,” officials in Huntington, West Virginia, knew they had a problem. They also had a solution.

By Kaitlyn Levinson
May 17, 2024

Cities know that the way police respond to mental crisis calls must change. But how?

Cities are experimenting with new ways to meet the rapidly increasing demand for behavioral health crisis intervention, at a time when incidents of police shooting and killing people in mental health crisis have become painfully familiar.

By Nicole Leonard and Kate Wolffe, KFF Health News
February 13, 2024

Gunfire, screams, carnage: As mass shootings proliferate, training gets more realistic

Law enforcement and medical workers experience the sights, smells and sounds of gun violence to prepare for tragedy.

By Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline
February 5, 2024

Your daily read on state and local government

10 lessons learned from the Justice Department's review of the Uvalde school shooting

COMMENTARY | The critical review of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting offers key takeaways to help policymakers, practitioners and schools avoid the same failures if faced with a similar situation.

By Jaclyn Schildkraut, Rockefeller Institute of Government
January 24, 2024

Gear without PFAS coatings could put firefighters at risk

PFAS, or forever chemicals, can harm the environment and people's health. But when used in firefighter gear, PFAS can help protect responders against flammable hazards.

By Matt Shipman, Futurity
December 11, 2023

Your daily read on state and local government

Almost There! Help us tailor content specifically for you:

Full Name

Agency/Department

Organization Function

Organization Name

Job Function

Phone number

Zip code

Country

Country Name

Yes, Route Fifty can email me on behalf of carefully selected companies and organizations.

I agree to the use of my personal data by Government Executive Media Group and its partners to serve me targeted ads. Learn more.

This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Accept Cookies

Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings

Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Functional Cookies

Performance Cookies

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

Targeting Cookies