Spring Seminar Lineup Announced: Death Investigation, Opioids, Artificial Intelligence
RaCERS announces its Spring 2018 lectures series. This semester’s talks cover abroad range of emerging public safety and emergency response topics.
February 21 features a discussion of policy on emergency services dealing with unattended deaths by Detective Chief Inspector Rebecca Reeves of the London Metropolitan Police. Det. Chief Ins. Reeves is a Fulbright Police Scholar studying policies from New York City. This promises to be a lively and interesting talk as we compare policy on unattended deaths in London with that of New York.
March 6 sees the return of Len Garis, speaking on various responses to the opioid crisis in Surrey (Greater Vancouver, British Columbia). Garis has led multiple research and policy efforts aimed at identifying, responding to, and helping manage the problems for emergency responders in coping with the demands of overdoses. Garis will discuss a real-time data analytics application used to detect spikes in overdoses early enough to begin preventive activity, and other evidence-based approaches used to confront the crisis, including a pioneering study in conjunction with StatsCanada. Garis is Fire Chief in Surrey, BC, and on faculty at the University of the Fraser Valley and Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research. He is also an affiliated researcher at RaCERS.
April 19 will be an expansive talk from Rodrick and Deborah Wallace. The Wallaces are among the most progressive analysts using rigorous mathematics and social science research to address social and urban problems. In a career going back to the 1970s, they began by identifying shortcomings in models developed to guide fire service deployment and have continued, making compelling connections between basic urban services and public health, across numerous domains. Their most recent efforts include publication of several books and monographs on artificial intelligence and the hazards of models applied to real-world problems. They will discuss their work generally, and talk about the hazards inherent in self-driving vehicles and automated transportation systems.
Sign up for any of these events at signup here. All events are held at John Jay College, from 130-330pm. As always, refreshments are provided.
Watch our web page for updates on last semester’s talks which are streamed on Periscope, and will be uploaded to our “videos” page.
