America's Murder Rate Just Hit a 125-Year Low, But Not Everywhere

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My wife and I were driving separately to a family event when traffic ground to a halt on the highway. Construction, accident, total gridlock. She called me. "Where are you?" I was two miles behind her. Without a way to see each other's location, we spent 20 minutes on the phone trying to coordinate. Now we share locations permanently through our phones. It takes zero daily effort and eliminates the "where are you?" question entirely.

Here's what I've got this weekend.

Family Location Sharing and Vehicle Tracking

We covered communication plans (Issue 99) and mesh networks (Issue 40). This week is about passive location awareness: knowing where your family members and vehicles are without having to ask.

Family location sharing is built into every modern smartphone. Apple's Find My, Google's Family Link, and Life360 all provide real-time location sharing among family members. Once configured, you can see where everyone is on a map without calling, texting, or interrupting anyone. During an emergency, this eliminates the most urgent question: where are my people?

The preparedness application is direct. During a sudden event (earthquake, active weather, civil disturbance), knowing your family's locations immediately tells you who's safe, who might be affected, and where to direct resources. No phone call needed. No network congestion issue (location sharing uses minimal data). The information is just there.

For vehicles, dedicated GPS trackers like the Apple AirTag ($29, no subscription) or LandAirSea Overdrive ($150 MSRP, frequently discounted to around $75, plus subscription plans starting at $20/month) provide location tracking independent of smartphones. An AirTag in your vehicle's glovebox shows you where your car is from any Apple device. The LandAirSea tracker provides real-time tracking with speed alerts and geofencing.

Vehicle trackers serve several preparedness functions: finding your car in a large parking structure during an evacuation, locating a stolen vehicle, tracking a teenager's driving during severe weather, and confirming that a vehicle you're depending on (bug-out vehicle, work truck) is where you expect it to be.

Privacy within your family is a conversation to have. Location sharing works best when everyone understands why it exists and consents to it. Frame it as mutual safety, not surveillance. Everyone shares. Everyone can see everyone. The teenager can see where parents are too.

The limitation: all of these tools require a charged device and some form of connectivity (cellular, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth network for AirTags). In a full communication blackout, they stop updating. This is where your physical meeting points and radio communication plans (Issue 99) take over.

Set up family location sharing on your phones.

Apple: open Find My, invite family members. Android: use Google Maps location sharing or Family Link. Life360 works on both. Takes about 10 minutes to configure for a family of four. From now on, you know where everyone is. Always.

Taiwan: Why a Distant Standoff Belongs on Your Radar

We're including this for a few reasons beyond the headlines. Beijing has said for years that reunification with Taiwan will happen "peacefully if possible, by force if necessary," a position formalized in China's 2005 Anti-Secession Law and restated by China's foreign minister earlier this year. Taiwan's TSMC alone produces an estimated 90% of the world's most advanced computer chips, the ones inside phones, cars, and military hardware, with no real backup source if that supply were cut off. The Taiwan Strait carries more than a fifth of all global maritime trade, including $1.3 trillion a year in Chinese imports and exports alone. China has also built military installations on artificial islands in the South China Sea after publicly pledging in 2015 that it had no intention of doing so. None of this means a conflict is imminent. It means a disruption here would not stay a regional story. It would reach chip supply, shipping costs, and prices everywhere.

Source: CSIS ChinaPower, South China Morning Post, Council on Foreign Relations

Remi Adeleke's SEAL team operations depended on constant positional awareness of every team member. In Transformed, he writes about how knowing your team's location eliminates an entire category of uncertainty, freeing mental bandwidth for the decisions that actually require thought.

For families, Adeleke's principle translates directly: location sharing removes the "where is everyone?" question from your emergency response. That question, unanswered, generates anxiety that degrades decision-making. Answered passively by a shared location app, it becomes a non-issue, letting you focus on the actions that matter.

America's Murder Rate Just Hit a 125-Year Low, But Not Everywhere

The national homicide rate fell 18% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025 and is down 51% from the 2022 peak, according to a new analysis from the nonprofit Council on Criminal Justice. The projected 2026 rate of about 4.0 homicides per 100,000 residents would be the lowest recorded in law enforcement or public health data since at least 1900. The decline isn't uniform: eight cities, including Norfolk (up 64%), San Francisco (up 55%), and Dallas (up 30%), saw homicides rise even as the national number fell.

For preparedness, the lesson is in the gap between the headline and your zip code. A falling national average can mask a rising local one, so check your own city's actual trend instead of assuming the national number applies to you.

Source: CBS News, Council on Criminal Justice

Apple AirTag (Vehicle Tracker)

I placed an AirTag in each family vehicle's glovebox. Using Find My on any Apple device, I can see exactly where each car is. The AirTag uses the global Apple Find My network (billions of devices) to relay its location, so it works anywhere there's an iPhone or Apple device nearby, which is effectively everywhere.

Battery life is about 1 year (replaceable CR2032). No subscription. No cellular plan. Just the $29 device and an Apple account. I've used it once to find my car in a large parking garage and once to verify my teenager actually drove to the library. About $29 per AirTag.

Budget alternative: Google Maps location sharing (free). Share your location with family members in real time. No hardware purchase needed. Works on both Android and iPhone.

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Overrated: Real-time vehicle tracking subscriptions for most families. Unless you have a specific need (fleet management, high-theft-risk area), an AirTag or free phone location sharing covers the preparedness use case without monthly fees.

Underrated: Sharing your own location with your family permanently. Most people think of location sharing as "tracking others." The greater value is being trackable yourself. If you're in an accident, incapacitated, or off-route, your family can find you without you having to communicate.

Apple Find My: Built-in Apple device and family location sharing.

Google Maps: Location Sharing: Free real-time location sharing on Android and iOS.

Life360: Cross-platform family location sharing app.

Grokipedia: GPS Tracking: Background on tracking technology.

EFF: Location Privacy: Electronic Frontier Foundation guidance on location data privacy.

Grief and loss during disasters. Navigating the emotional weight of losing property, normalcy, or people during and after emergencies.

PS: The highway gridlock incident took 20 minutes to resolve over the phone. With location sharing, it would have taken zero minutes. I'd have seen her two miles ahead, texted "I see you on the map, I'll meet you at the exit," and that would have been it. Zero stress. Zero confusion. The setup takes 10 minutes once. The value lasts indefinitely.