Public Safety

  • Private security community find lucrative opportunities in Haiti

    Debate intensifies over the deployment of private security companies to earthquake-ravaged Haiti; some see these companies as a welcome alternative to the traditionally brutal, corrupt, and ineffective local security forces; others argue that aid money should not be spent on hiring outside contractors but on building a better local security force

  • Questions and answers on drug-related violence in Mexico

    The security situation in Mexico is spiraling out of control; the drug cartels, heretofore content to kill members of rival cartels and the occasional local politician, have now dropped all restraint in their assault on the Mexican state; the cartels are now attacking the Mexican army directly, while no longer bothering to limit collateral damage to the civilian population; the Mexican government, in desperation, has deployed the army so extensively in its anti-drug campaign because it feels the police cannot be trusted; drug cartels with massive resources at their disposal have repeatedly managed to infiltrate the underpaid police, from the grassroots level to the very top; efforts are under way to rebuild the entire structure of the Mexican police force, but the process is expected to take years

    • State, Political Community and Foreign Relations in Modern and Contemporary Syria
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  • The FBI discusses the Sovereign Citizen Movement

    The FBI is educating the American public about the threat of domestic terrorism; it has already provided information on its Web side about eco-terrorists and lone offenders, and in the latest installment it discusses the Sovereign Citizen Movement

  • Thales's Watchkeeper makes maiden voyage

    Watchkeeper is a multi-sensor, all-weather unmanned air system (UAS) designed to remain airborne for more than sixteen hours in a single mission. It includes automatic take-off and landing (ATOL), along with a de-icing capability, expanding its ability to operate in all-weather environments

    • Secure your Perimeter with CAST LED Perimeter Light -- Click to Learn More
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  • Preparing for climate wars

    Climate change is not only the concern of academics and left-leaning do-gooders; it has increasingly become the preoccupation of strategic planners, militaries, and the intelligence communities in all the leading industrial states; the national security establishments of the U.S. NATO, India, and others have been war-gaming climate change and how to cope with its predicted consequences; a new book details some of the frightening scenarios for which the U.S. and other militaries prepare

  • U.S. not ready for clean up effort after a bioterror attack

    The small 2001 anthrax attack in the United States cost hundreds of millions of dollars in decontamination costs, and some of the facilities attacked could not be reopened for more than two years; a large-scale biological release in an American city, though, could potentially result in hundreds of thousands of illnesses and deaths and could cost trillions of dollars to clean up

  • International companies in Mexico now target for cartel attacks

    Until recently, few criminals dared to touch the factories and offices of the hundreds of multinational corporations — or maquilas — in Reynosa, Maxico; amid a violent three-way war among two cartels and the military, the maquilas are no longer untouched; none of the 140 maquiladoras in Reynosa’s eleven industrial parks have pulled out of the area, but many have developed exit strategies in case the violence does not abate

  • DARPA unveils details of Transformer TX flying car

    DARPA is inviting proposals for flying car and accompanying technologies; in addition to being a capable ground vehicle, the TX should be able to lift off and land “without forward motion” and thereafter climb at least one unit upward for every six moved forward at sea level, or a minimum of 1:10 at higher altitudes; it should cruise in forward flight mode at speeds “representative of a light single-engine aircraft” and be able to achieve altitudes of 10,000 feet

  • Violence in Mexico increases sharply as a drug cartel coalition is trying to destroy Los Zetas

    Drug-fueled triangle of death engulfs Rio Grande region; Mexico’s Gulf, La Familia, and Sinaloa drug cartels have formed an alliance in order to destroy Los Zetas — a group of mostly former and AWOL Mexican soldiers who began as a security and hit squad for the Gulf cartel, but last year broke from its employer

  • Northrop Grumman unveils latest version of Wheelbarrow UGV

    Northrop Grumman’s Wheelbarrow unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) was first used by British Army bomb disposal teams during “The Troubles” in Ireland in the 1970s; since then it has gone through a number of design upgrades to extend its capabilities and meet changing military and first response needs; the company has just unveiled the latest version of this veteran robot

  • Five full-body scanners to be used in Chile to catch drug traffickers

    Chile is deploying full-body scanner at border crossing along its border with Peru to prevent drug smuggling; during a 1-year test period, two million people were scanned, and 51 kilograms of cocaine, carried by 42 different border-crossers, seized

  • U.S. federal authorities fear surge of homegrown extremism

    DHS officials and lawmakers have been warning for months that law enforcement agencies are unprepared to deal with what they say is a mounting threat. Experts note that Michigan, in particular, is vulnerable because of its growing number of anti-government militia groups and the attractiveness of its large Arab-American population to radical Muslim groups

  • How do you quickly evacuate 70,000 sports fans from a stadium attacked by terrorists?

    Sports fan do not like to stand in a slow moving, snaking line to get into a stadium for a big game; they do not like inching forward in a long, snaking line to get out of the stadium at the end of the game; imagine what would happen if a bomb were to explode, or a chemical agent released, in stadium packed with 70,000 spectators; DHS Science & Technology Directorate is working in a solution

  • NYC takes extra measures to protect subway from terror

    The New York City’s subway system is a porous, 24-hour-a-day system with 468 stations and an average of 5 million riders a day; NYC security officials insist the city remains the nation’s No. 1 terror target, and they devote extra resources to protecting Wall Street, the Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge. and other high-profile potential targets; their biggest worry — spurred by the recent bombing in Moscow and a foiled plot in New York — is the subway

  • Mexican smugglers clone Border Patrol vehicles to evade detection

    There is a new twist in the on going war along the U.S.-Mexico border: Mexican smugglers now use “cloned” Border Patrol vehicles to smuggle drugs into the United States; there is an added danger here, as Mexican drug cartels have launched an assassination campaign against U.S. law enforcement personnel along the border; driving a Border Patrol look-alike vehicle allows the assailants to get closer to their targets without arousing suspicion