Law Enforcement

  • Homeland security challenges for the Washington D.C. police, I

    Protecting the U.S. capital on a local level poses unique challenges, but it also offers advantages; the police department must accommodate both traditional local concerns and diverse needs related to the presence of multiple federal government and military organizations; yet, the department also can tap those myriad government agencies for vital resources and information that help it counter or respond to terrorist threats

  • Testing 4G technology for national public safety network

    A 4G mobile telecommunications technology would make a major contribution to the proposed nationwide public safety network on the 700 MHz radio band because it would give emergency responders access to advanced communications technologies and massive data files (video, mapping, and GPS applications, etc.) at faster speeds from anywhere in the country

  • Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, soccer World Cup take extra security measures

    The organizers of three big sporting events – the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and the soccer World Cup – are taking extra security measures to ensure the safety of participants and spectators; The Winter Olympics’ security budget initially projected at $175 million now tops $900 million, and the force for the games will include more than 15,000 people, a surveillance blimp hovering over Vancouver, and more than 900 surveillance cameras monitoring competition venues and crowd-attracting public areas; at the Super Bowl, nearly everyone entering the stadium will be subjected to a pat-down search; exceptions would be a police officer in uniform, a player in uniform, and the president of the United States

  • Next-generation gear: Digital revolvers, personal rubber bullets, triple-tasers

    The Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas offers many futuristic gadgets for law enforcement and security-minded citizens; Armatix shows a hand gun with a wireless safety residing in a wrist watch: if you do not wear the wrist watch, the gun will not operate; Burris has built one of the most sophisticated rifle scopes ever seen: it has a laser rangefinder that can automatically adjust your sights to compensate for the fall of each bullet over long distances; there is much more

  • Native American companies profit from detaining immigrants

    Native American companies may not have expertise in running detention centers, but they have something more important: preference rights; preference gives Alaska Native corporations a priority shot at getting federal contracts; immigrant detention means business, and several Native American firms are profiting from the get-tough policy on immigration; contract awards to Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) by all federal agencies increased by 916 percent from 2000 to 2008, rising from $508.4 million in 2000 to $5.2 billion in 2008

  • Former NBA star Jayson Williams to wear alcohol detection bracelet

    After one too many arrests, troubled former NBA star Jayson Williams is ordered by a judge to wear an alcohol detection bracelet; Williams must wear the detection device as long as he is not in custody; the device measures his perspiration every thirty minutes for alcohol content. If there is any, it will notify authorities in New York and New Jersey

  • BAE develops a UAV for U.K. police

    BAE Systems, which produces a UAV for war zones, is developing the military-style planes for a consortium of U.K. government agencies; a Home Office-backed project intends to use the drone in time for the 2012 Olympics

  • First responders want more spectrum for safety network

    A 10-MHz swath of spectrum in the 700 MHz band freed up by last year’s switch to digital TV broadcasting already has been set aside for the nationwide network for first responders; public safety officials, though, said the additional bandwidth is necessary to create a robust, high-speed network capable of handling multiple kinds of data, as well as video and voice traffic

  • Police camera use puts focus on privacy in public

    South Portland, Maine, police is using automated license plate recognition CCTV which targets traffic scofflaws — but it is connected to a centralized databank which helps the policy pick up people who are wanted on warrants and other potential offenders; supporters say new license-plate recognition technology will improve the safety

  • Councils use CCTV to collect £3 million in “ghost” parking tickets every year

    More and more councils in the United Kingdom use CCTVs to issue automatic tickets for parking violations; throughout England, 265 local authorities collected £328 million in parking fines last year — more than three times as much as speed cameras raked in; motoring groups argue these “ghost tickets” are unfair because motorists do not know they had been fined until afterward, it is more difficult to check signs and mount an appeal

  • Court finds Taser use by police officer during traffic stop was “excessive force”

    In what legal scholars describe as a landmark ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit could set the first broad judicial standards for the use of Tasers; the case involves a California police officer who tased a passive driver during a routine traffic stop in 2005; the court found that the facts of the case clearly show that the driver was never a threat to the officer

  • New radio system is working “flawlessly”

    When the switch was flipped Tuesday morning on Kandiyohi County’s, Minnesota, new 800-megahertz radio system, emergency personnel had no idea the unique technology would be put to such quick use.

  • Handheld touch screen device may lead to mobile fingerprint ID

    The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team wanted to replace the 20-pound rugged laptop plus fingerprint scanner their hostage rescue teams lug around with a smaller and lighter device; NIST researchers develop one

  • DHS investigates counterfeit operation

    DHS suspects that there is a connection between the sale of counterfeit clothing and funding of terrorist actitivites; the Fresno police raids a clothing store in Fresno, California, and confiscated half a million dollars worth of phony designer jeans, T-shirts, handbags,
    and shoes.

  • HIV-as-terrorism case draws national attention

    Two Michigan neighbors got into a fight, and one of them bit the other; when prosecutors learned from a TV report that the man who bit his neighbor was HIV positive, they added the charge of bioterrorism to the charges of assault and assault with intent to maim; prosecutors say the new charge is based on a 2004 Michigan law, passed in the wake of 9/11, which speaks of “possession or use of a harmful device,” and they point to a Michigan Court of Appeal’s ruling that HIV-infected blood was a “harmful biological substance” under Michigan law.