• Showcasing Israeli homeland security technology

    Next week’s Homeland Security International Conference in Tel Aviv will showcase Israel’s homeland security technology; Israel is already the world’s third-largest exporter of defense technology; in homeland security technology, it is among the Top 10 exporting countries; Brazil, India, Mexico, and Thailand, among others, are markets opening up for Israeli homeland security products

  • Revolutionary forensic fingerprinting technique also detects corrosion

    Two years ago, Dr. John Bond at the University of Leicester developed a revolutionary method for identifying fingerprints on brass bullet casings, even after they have been wiped clean; now, Bond has applied the same technique to industry by developing a simple, handheld device which can measure corrosion on machine parts

  • Illegal immigration into U.S. continues to decline

    The Border Patrol made about 463,000 arrests during the federal government’s fiscal year that ended 30 September, down from 556,032 the previous twelve months; this marks the fifth straight year of declines; the Border Patrol arrests are down 72 percent from nearly 1.7 million arrested in 2000; the agency typically makes about 97 percent of its arrests along the 1,952-mile border with Mexico

  • Spray DNA lowers crime

    Several business establishment in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam have been using a new tool to fight robberies: spray DNA; the McDonald’s branch near city hall, for example, has a small orange box near the exit, which, when triggered by an employee (the protocol for secretly activating the system: removing a 10 Euro bill from a special bill clip kept behind the counter), both sprays the culprit with odorless, invisible synthetic DNA and alerts the local police; the company making the spray DNA also makes crayon DNA which companies can use to mark computers and other valuable office equipment

  • Police can now get information from water-logged phones

    Mobile phones are a vital part of police investigations these days — the second thing a cop checks a body for, after checking for a wallet; if the phone has been dropped into water (or if the dead body with the phone on it is in the water), retrieving phone information is much more difficult; a British company offers law enforcement a solution for water-logged phones

  • App developed to find crooks

    University of Nebraska researchers are developing an app for iPhone and Droid which will allow police to locate sex offenders, parolees, known gang members, and people with arrest warrants; the Nebraska team is planning to combine police GIS and GPS data into a program that would instantly create maps tailored to officers’ specific locations

  • Debate intensifies over warrantless GPS tracking devices

    A-20 year old student took his car for a routine oil change — and the mechanic servicing the car found a GPS device attached to it; the two took the device off; FBI agents visited the student two days later, demanding the return of their property; debate intensifies about whether or not GPS devices can be used to track people with a warrant issued by a court

  • Technology helps find missing persons

    Project LifeSaver provides tracking bracelets to caregiver of people with certain medical conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, or traumatic brain injury, that make them more vulnerable to becoming lost

  • Mexican cartels' assassins operate in Arizona

    Drug smuggling gangs in Mexico have sent well-armed assassins, or sicarios, into Arizona to locate and kill bandits who are ambushing and stealing loads of cocaine, marijuana, and heroin headed to buyers in the United States; the drug cartels have posted scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills surrounding the Vekol Valley smuggling corridor; says the country sheriff: “They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has—- This is going on here in Arizona. This is 70 to 80 miles from the border — 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States”

  • Food delivery services boom as violence force people to stay home

    More than 4,000 jobs have disappeared in the restaurant industry and about 40 percent of dining establishments have closed due to the high levels of crime in the border city; as one industry declines, another emerges: more and more companies are now offering home deliveries of food from different restaurants to Juarez residents who fear going out

  • Number of extremist, hard-to-police Web sites skyrockets

    The number of extremist Web sites has skyrocketed, expanding from 12 in 1998 to 4,500 in 2006; Western authorities say that taking action to remove them remains difficult; different countries have adopted different approaches to the problem

  • Daytime shotgun tracer ammunition developed

    Two companies collaborate to produce the world’s first non-pyrotechnic shotgun tracer; ChemiTracer creates a daytime visible trace that travels with the cloud of the shot allowing shooters instantly to determine how to correct their aim

  • USB thumb drive for cybersecurity missions

    New USB thumb drives designed for military, intelligence, and law enforcement cybersecurity missions; the device boots in less than three seconds, then automatically scans and copies data by prioritizing search criteria and securely partitions search results for analysis

  • Mexican mayors: Returning criminal Mexicans to border towns increases violence

    A coalition of Mexican mayors say the United States is contributing to the increase in violence in Mexican border towns by busing repatriated Mexicans who committed crimes in the United States to these border towns — where they join the ranks of the drug cartels — rather than drive or fly them back to their home towns

  • Taser shotgun in legal trouble in U.K.

    Taser’s new, powerful eXtended Range Electronic Projectile, or X12, is being evaluated by the U.K. Home Office for possible adoption by U.K. police; before the evaluation has been completed, the British importer of the weapon sold it to the Northumbria police, in the north of England, which used it against fugitive Raoul Moat, who died as a result; the Home Office has now revoked the importer’s license