How Schools and Local Governments Can Test Cyber Preparedness
Cyber preparedness depends on the risks an organization faces and its ability to keep essential services running when those risks become real. For a school district, a cyber incident could interrupt transportation, payroll, or classroom technology. Those consequences should guide where leaders invest limited staff time and funding.
An incident response plan needs people who understand their responsibilities and can act under pressure. Recovery depends on backups that have been successfully restored. Emergency contacts must remain accessible when the network is unavailable. Each capability requires preparation and practice before it can support an actual response.
Comparing operational risks with tested capabilities reveals where investment can make the greatest difference. A scenario that could seriously disrupt services deserves particular attention when the response depends on untested procedures or unclear decision authority.
Tabletop exercises help establish whether the whole organization can continue making decisions during an outage. They test alternate communications and vendor coordination, exposing gaps that technical checks alone may miss. The results give leaders evidence for deciding which weaknesses to address first.
Free Cybersecurity Assessments and Exercises for State and Local Governments
Fractional Source and Sourcewell Ventures are expanding their cybersecurity pilot to state and local governments, offering free assessments and exercises to help agencies prepare for cyber incidents.
Community Spotlight: Mayor Aaron Brockett, Boulder: Expanding Public Safety Technology Ahead of Sundance Film Festival
Aaron Brockett has served as mayor of Boulder, Colorado, since November 2021, when his fellow council members selected him for the role. In November 2023, he won the cityʼs first direct mayoral election, which was also Boulderʼs first use of ranked-choice voting. Brockett grew up in Sewanee, Tennessee, and studied music at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Cherry Anderson, lived in Stamford, Connecticut, for eight years before moving to Boulder in 2003. They raised two children in North Boulder and ran a small software development firm together for 20 years.
His public service began on the Boulder Planning Board, where he served from 2011 to 2015, including two years as chair. Voters elected him to City Council in 2015 and reelected him in 2019. He spent six years on the Denver Regional Council of Governments. He also sits on the Metro Mayors Caucus, the Northwest Mayors and Commissioners Coalition, and the Highway 119 Executive Committee. In 2022, he sought appointment to a vacant seat in the Colorado House of Representatives and was not selected. He is a member of the Boulder Racial Equity Guiding Coalition.
His council priorities are climate change, housing, transportation, economic vitality, social justice, and racial equity. During his tenure, the council eased rules for accessory dwelling units, allowed duplexes and triplexes, and eliminated minimum parking requirements. Brockett cites more than 200 permanent supportive housing units and says city homelessness has fallen by almost 50%. He supports denser housing near transit and annexing the Area III Planning Reserve for middle-income ownership housing. He has also called for more beds for substance use recovery and mental health care through partnerships.
He supports a mandatory home hardening ordinance for high-risk wildland-urban interface areas, phased in with grants for lower-income households and residents on fixed incomes. He credits the city with pressing Xcel Energy to bury major power lines around Boulder and says that effort helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars. He also backs a fall bond measure to address the city’s facility backlog and separately supports a performance auditor to identify efficiencies in city government. For downtown, he has proposed simpler permitting and economic vitality grants to help small businesses occupy vacant retail spaces.
On October 6, 2026, the Boulder Police and Fire Communications Center announced that an AI voice assistant will answer calls to its non-emergency line. The assistant, called ANET, is provided by Axon. A soft launch begins at the end of October, running a few hours at a time several days a week so staff can monitor it. The city expects full implementation by the end of November. During the soft launch, callers may reach either ANET or a live call taker depending on when they call. Staff will review calls and summaries to adjust the assistant before it runs full time.
About 70% of calls to the center are non-emergency calls, with the remaining 30% coming through 911. The city says the goal is shorter hold times, more dispatcher time for emergencies, and written transcripts and summaries of each call. Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the assistant will let staff focus on serious threats while still serving lower-priority callers.
ANET greets callers, reminds them to dial 911 for emergencies, and confirms their name and callback number. It asks follow-up questions about location and descriptions, then reads back a summary for the caller to correct. It works in English and Spanish and handles matters such as abandoned vehicles, noise and parking complaints, crashes with no injuries, lost property, and reports of thefts or burglaries where the suspect has left. For some requests, it sends a text message with a link to an online form or resource. After each call, staff use the written summary to enter a call for service, notify a department, or arrange contact with an officer.
The assistant does not answer 911 calls. It listens for signs of injury, fire, weapons, violence, or a distressed caller and transfers those calls to a dispatcher. Callers can ask for a person at any point, and dispatchers can watch the conversation live and step in. A police spokesperson said Axon will not use call data to train its AI. Recordings and transcripts will be kept under Colorado law and city records policies. Residents who want to file a complaint about a call can tell the assistant, which transfers them to dispatch. Calls entered into the dispatch system also trigger an automatic feedback survey.
The rollout arrives alongside a new Public Safety Information Center that can monitor up to 225 city camera feeds and run drone responses, with weekly audits of camera access. Police Commander Darren Fladung said planning for the center grew out of preparations for the Sundance Film Festival. Brockett welcomed the announcement of Boulder’s selection as the festival’s new home in March 2025, and its first Boulder edition runs in January 2027.
Modernizing public safety takes the right technology and the right expertise to put it to work. Fractional Source connects public agencies with experienced leaders who can help implement innovative solutions, strengthen essential services, and prepare for growing community demands, on your terms and your timeline. Book a quick call with the Fractional Source team.
QUICK HIT NEWS
The Grand Forks County Commission in North Dakota unanimously renewed two technology contracts for the Sheriffʼs Office. A lease with Guardian RFID, which tracks inmates at the county correctional center with wristbands and handheld scanners, will cost about $20,000 a year for three years and includes scanner and software upgrades. The county also renewed its SCRAM Systems contract for court-ordered alcohol monitoring and accepted a $51,804 state Vision Zero grant for traffic enforcement.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed Executive Order 2026-08 to advance the stateʼs Pro Human AI Initiative, launched in December 2025. The order directs the Department of Government Operations to lead AI process improvements, set safeguards against cybersecurity threats and rogue AI agents, and report on progress each year, with the first report due July 1, 2027. The Division of Technology Services and the Division of Human Resource Management will jointly build AI literacy training for state employees.
Raleigh, North Carolina, has become the first city government to use Alli, an AI agent co-developed with ServiceNow that resolves IT problems instead of pointing staff to help articles. The cityʼs help desk has four technicians supporting 4,400 employees and about 13,000 devices. ServiceNow reports that the agent resolves nearly half of IT requests on its own, routes 98% of tickets correctly on first contact, and has cut service desk costs by 66%. The city is now evaluating the tool for Ask Raleigh, its resident portal.
Casper, Wyoming, unanimously approved a one-year, $58,800 contract for TRULEO after a roughly six-month police trial. The software offers automated body-camera review, encounter summaries, and AI-assisted report writing. The company says it accesses only information officers authorize and streams data from its existing storage. Despite months of debate over police AI use and safeguards, the contract passed on the council’s consent agenda without further public discussion.
FOR THE COMMUTE
Why Fort Worth Is the National Model for Social Innovation (Fort Worth Innovates)
Dan Vogel, founder and CEO of Flourish Fund and former White House policy adviser, joins host Cameron Cushman to discuss why Fort Worth was chosen as one of four pilot cities, selected from 30 candidates, to help reshape the foster care system. He points to Texasʼs community-based care model, in which the state contracts a social service agency to run local foster care. He notes that Fort Worth ranks among the strongest performers under that model, crediting ACH Child and Family Services.
RESOURCES & EVENTS
We’re heading to ICMA 2026
State and local leaders are being asked to do more with less, modernize aging systems, navigate workforce challenges, manage emerging technology and still deliver for their communities.
Those are exactly the conversations we want to have.
Fractional Source connects public-sector organizations with experienced leaders who can step in when you need specialized expertise, additional capacity or a fresh perspective, without adding another full-time position.
If you’ll be at ICMA, come find us at Booth 1352. We’d love to hear what your organization is working through.
📊 Report Spotlight: 2026 State and Local Government Workforce Survey (PSHRA)
The survey of more than 600 public sector HR professionals found that 45% use AI to draft interview questions, 42% to write job descriptions, and 30% to improve processes. However, only 29% reported training all HR staff in AI use, and 16% said their agencies test AI applications for bias.
INSIGHT OF THE WEEK
Arkansas closed school districts with fewer than 350 students starting in 2004, expecting mergers to save money. Twenty years later, a University of Arkansas cost analysis finds no overall savings. After 85 districts merged and 105 schools closed, administrative spending fell by up to $138 per student. Those savings were offset by increases of up to $179 per student in instructional staff spending, along with higher spending on pupil support and transportation. Earlier research found the mergers produced almost no academic gains and sped up rural population loss. The findings come as national K-12 enrollment is projected to fall 6% between 2020 and 2030, and lead author Josh McGee urges caution before other states pursue consolidation.
