Public Safety
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Debate in California over reward money for killer’s finders
Several donors in California have pulled back their portion of a $1 million reward which was offered for information leading to the capture and conviction of Christopher Dorner, who went on a 10-day shooting spree and killed four people, including Riverside police officer Michael Crain, earlier this year. The donors who pulled back their pledges say the criterion for the reward has not been met because Dorner killed himself. Those donors who have decided to pay up say it would be disingenuous not to honor the reward pledge.
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Suppressing naturally occurring blazes increases wildfire risk
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 9.3 million U.S. acres burned in wildfires in 2012 compared with 3.57 million acres affected in 2001 and 2.95 million in 1991. One reason for the increase in the number of acres consumed by wildfires is the U.S. government’s policy of suppressing of naturally occurring blazes. Researchers say that this policy can have unintended consequences, including making wildfires more severe.
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British public divided on merits of drone strikes
Fifty-five percent of the British public would support the U.K. government assisting in a drone missile strike to kill a known terrorist overseas, but support drops substantially if innocent casualties are likely, according to a new study.
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DHS agent charged with sharing child porn
A DHS agent was charged and arraigned in San Francisco on Tuesday for possessing child pornography. The large number of material prompted DHS Security to launch a lengthy investigation.
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Automakers help Detroit emergency services
General Motors, Ford Motors, and the Chrysler Group joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Quicken Loans, and several other businesses in the Detroit area to donate $8 million for new ambulances and police cars, on the same day that emergency manager Kevyn Orr started his job.
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Maintaining U.S. “overwhelming technological advantage” over adversaries
DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO) creates advanced platforms, weapons, and space systems to help preserve U.S. military superiority through overwhelming technological advantage. DARPA will hold a two-day event aims to spur innovation by gathering potential partners from across TTO’s portfolio.
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Pennsylvania Sheriff charged for making terrorist threats
A Pennsylvania sheriff was arrested and charged Monday for threatening to chop off a Democratic campaign worker’s hands, shoot a reporter, and intimidate witnesses.
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DHS denies plan for large ammunition buy
DHS announcement that it was planning to buy 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years was greeted with questions by some and a sense of alarm by others. Now DHS is explaining its move.
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How U.K. can better prepare for emergencies
Well designed and planned exercises are essential to ensure that the United Kingdom can respond effectively to emergencies of all kinds. The emergencies may take the form of a terrorist attack, flooding, pandemic flu, rail or air disaster — or any major disruptive event requiring an emergency response.
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DHS helps tear down technological “Tower of Babel” along U.S. borders
First responders and international officials on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border had been preparing since last fall for the Canada-U.S. Enhance Resiliency Experiment (CAUSE) — demonstrating the ability to exchange information between local, state, provincial, and national systems and software applications. With these preparations, a recent joint experiment held in Maine and New Brunswick proved that even across borders, any immediate confusion or lack of information following an incident should not greatly affect overall rescue efforts.
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Police departments report difficulties buying ammo
Local law enforcement agencies around the country are finding it hard to buy ammo these days. The shortage is in part due to gun owners stocking up on bullets due to concerns about new gun laws at the federal and state levels. DHS plan o buy 1.6 billion bullets only adds to the ammo shortage.
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Enhancing Army capabilities as new threats emerge
Some twenty-eight nations have some type of weapons of mass destruction capability, with some of them having nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons capability. The nuclear materials in many of these countries are kept in hundreds of sites without global safeguards in place for securing them. A senior American military official described these loose nukes as the “single biggest existential threat to Western survival.” Yet, in a recent exercise, the U.S. response time for deploying 90,000 troops to a crisis area – an area which included loose nukes, other WMDs, or both — took fifty-five days. U.S. military leaders say this is just not good enough.
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In 2012, Microsoft received 70,665 law-enforcement requests for customer information
On Thursday, Microsoft released the number of law enforcement requests it has received for information on its hundreds of millions of customers. By releasing the information, Microsoft is now putting itself on the same team as Google, Twitter, Yahoo, and other Web businesses which have published reports on law-enforcement request for customer information. In 2012 Microsoft received a total of 70,665 law-enforcement requests for customer information.
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Gun manufacturer to leave Colorado after governor signs gun bill
Colorado governor John Hickenlooper on Wednesday signed a state gun control bill which will expand background checks and limit ammunition magazine capacity. The measure is notable because Colorado has been considered a firearm-friendly state.
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Interoperability for automated fingerprint ID systems
A new set of publications from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could make it easier, faster, and most importantly, more reliable, for forensic examiners to match a set of fingerprints with those on file in any database, whether local, state, or national.
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