• Stun guns increase chances of citizen injury, but protect police officers

    Across the United States, some 260,000 electronic control devices, or stun guns, are in use in 11,500 law enforcement agencies; the use of these stun guns by police significantly increases the chances of citizen injury, yet also protects the officers more than other restraint methods, according to the most comprehensive research to date into the safety of stun guns in a law enforcement setting

  • Reason-based behavioral recognition system wins award

    A reason-based behavioral recognition system for video surveillance developed by Houston, Texas-based BRS Labs wins an award at London’s Counter Terror Expo

  • Android app for radioactivity detection

    Just-release Android app uses software and the smartphone’s camera to measure radioactivity levels, allowing users to find out whether their environments are safe; the software is the civilian version of technology developed under contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and with DHS

  • Seattle police takes steps to quell drone concerns

    The Seattle Police Department recently acquired a small camera-equipped drone, but it remains unused while city policymakers work to calm privacy concerns

  • Kansas City to deploy ShotSpotter technology

    Kansas City police and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority have agreed jointly to deploy the Shot Spotter, an acoustic technology that provides detailed information on gunshots fired

  • British state-backed reinsurer has £4.5 billion to cover Olympic Games terror-related losses

    Pool Re, the British state-backed reinsurer which covers commercial property losses from  terror attack-related activities, has £4.5 billion ($7.327 billion) of assets to cover the Summer Olympic Games. Pool Re said it had no plans to jack up premiums for the event. If the damage from bombings or other terror-related incidents were to cost more than that amount, the British taxpayer, under the Pool Re structure, would step in to cover the difference. Pool Re was set up in the 1990s when the U.K. government was worried that the terror campaign pursued by Irish militant groups could make London property uninsurable and damage the national economy.

  • Two Taiwanese nationals charged in military technology smuggling plot

    Taiwanese nationals engaged in smuggling counterfeit consumer goods and crystal methamphetamine into the United States, are discovered to be working for Chinese intelligence agencies in an effort to smuggle sensitive U.S. military technology out of the United States

  • Oklahoma University gets DHS research grant

    The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC)  was awarded a $490,000 grant from DHS for a 2-year study of how law enforcement officers utilize awareness of their surroundings to collect and then analyze intelligence related to potential terrorist threats

  • Facebook, antivirus providers in Internet security campaign

    Facebook, Microsoft, McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, and Sophos have joined in a campaign to make it easier for Facebook users to stay safer and more secure online

  • Waste-to-energy technology deployed in California

    A new Anaerobic biodigester waste processor, which relies on bacteria to break down biodegradable waste material in the absence of oxygen, is deployed by a Sacramento, California company; it converts 7.5 tons per day of food waste from regional food producers, including Campbell’s Soup Company, and a half ton each day of unrecyclable corrugated material into natural gas; the system will generate roughly 1,300 kWh of renewable energy per day, meeting about 37 percent of the company’s electricity needs and preventing an estimated 2,900 tons of waste from entering landfills each year

  • Safe fracking requires distance from sensitive rock strata

    Fracking — the process which releases natural gas and oil from shale rock strata – is becoming more and more popular because it promises access to new, abundant sources of energy; the process of fracking, however, has been associated with increase in the frequency of earthquakes and contamination of drinking water; scientists examine thousands of fracking operations in the United States, Europe, and Africa, and conclude that in order to minimize water contamination and earthquakes, there should be a minimum distance of at least 0.6 km between a fracking operation and sensitive rock strata

  • Increased U.S earthquakes may be caused by fracking

    From 1970 to 2000 the number of magnitude 3.0 or greater temblors in the U.S. mid-continent averaged twenty-one annually; by 2011 the number of such quakes had increased to 134; a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey links the increase of seismic activity to the increase in the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking

  • Harris deploys public safety communications system in Virginia

    Harris Corporation has received a $10 million contract from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, to deploy a public safety digital communications system based on P25 Phase 2 standards

  • Wisconsin county has a new LMR system

    In Rock County, Wisconsin, firefighters have been required manually to change radio channels as they moved from North to South because of two different frequencies in the region; Raytheon is helping to combine three disparate communications systems in the country into one; the result will be more efficient – and interoperable – first response communication system

  • Scientists: Deepwater Horizon exposed gaps in deepwater oil spill knowledge

    On the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a national team of scientists warns that inadequate knowledge about the effects of deepwater oil well blowouts threatens scientists’ ability to help manage comparable future events