• Ohio country authorized to use drones to look for missing persons

    The Medina County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Office has recently been authorized to fly drones on police missions. Tom Miller, the county’s new sheriff, said the drones will be used specifically for looking for missing people or suspect who may be hiding in the woods.

  • DHS HQ cafeteria employee claims she was repeatedly raped on the job

    A cafeteria employee claims she was sexually assaulted and raped several times at the cafeteria of the DHS headquarters building in Northwest Washington, D.C. The D.C. police is now investigating.

  • Alabama consolidates state law enforcement, IT agencies

    A Republican-led effort to consolidate government operations in Alabama was met with a bi-partisan approval as both Democrats and Republicans voted to merge law enforcement and information technology operations. A study done by Auburn University at Montgomery estimates state agencies spend $317 million a year on IT operations, and that with the new measures, the state could save between $32 million and $64 million.

  • Jumping soft robots avoid obstacles during search and rescue operations

    See video

    These soft robots can already stand, walk, wriggle under obstacles, and change colors. Now researchers are adding a new skill to the soft robot tool kit: jumping. Researchers make the robots jump by using combustible gases. This ability to jump could one day prove critical in allowing the robots to avoid obstacles during search and rescue operations.

  • Maryland drills first responders in response to “large-scale” incident

    More than 100 police, fire, first responders, military and civilian personnel took part in a homeland security exercise earlier this month at Battelle in Aberdeen, Maryland. The exercise included intelligence and information sharing, mass casualty care, on-site security and protection, operational coordination, and public information and communication.

  • Biden argues new gun laws needed

    Vice President Joe Biden told regional law enforcement officials in Philadelphia on Monday that new gun laws are needed if gun violence is to stop. Biden pledged to take his message around the country.

  • Seattle mayor says no to drones

    Seattle mayor Mike McGinn has shut down the Seattle Police Department’s drone program before it started. McGinn said the police need to stay focused on “community building.” The announcement came just one day after the city held a public hearing to discuss restrictions to be imposed on drone use by the police departments. Many citizens voiced their concerns about possible violations of privacy.

  • DHS grant to fund technology for tracking mobile devices

    The University Of Alabama at Birmingham(UAB) has been given a $583,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Securityto build a system for verifying the location history and chorological track of cell phones and smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices. The system being built could also be used to eliminate contest fraud, verify the origin of sea food, and protect national security.

  • Cat Killer Sean Lynde MacKenzie moves to Cyber-Extortion, Cyber-Harassment

    Sean Lynde, who pled guilty in New York to criminal animal cruelty and cyber extortion, has now assumed the name “MacKenzie” and is expanding his cyber extortion activities. According to charges filed before the New York Supreme Court, Lynde is now purchasing Web site accounts using other people’s names, posting death threats and defamatory statements on these sites, and then trying to extort funds from the targets. Holding multiple drivers licenses, in multiple names, Lynde reflects how criminals increasingly use the Web to cyber extort businesses and individuals

  • Cat Killer Sean Lynde MacKenzie moves to Cyber-Extortion, Cyber-Harassment

    Sean Lynde, who pled guilty in New York to criminal animal cruelty and cyber extortion, has now assumed the name “MacKenzie” and is expanding his cyber extortion activities. According to charges filed before the New York Supreme Court, Lynde is now purchasing Web site accounts using other people’s names, posting death threats and defamatory statements on these sites, and then trying to extort funds from the targets. Holding multiple drivers licenses, in multiple names, Lynde reflects how criminals increasingly use the Web to cyber extort businesses and individuals

  • Florida restricts the use of drones by law enforcement agencies

    States continue to restrict the use of drones by law enforcement agencies. Florida police agencies wanted state lawmakers to make a special exception in a bill which bans the use of UAVs by law enforcement, so that drones could be used for crowd control. The bill, however, won the approval of the Senate Community Affairs Committee without the exception.

  • Bangladeshi man pleads guilty to trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank building

    A Bangladeshi man who triedattempted to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank has pleaded guilty to the charges. Under the plea agreement, he will faces up to life in prison.

  • More states consider laws to limit the use of drones by police

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) appears ready to allow the use of drones in the United States, by both law enforcement agencies and private citizens, almost with no restrictions. Experts predict that by the end of the decade, there will be about 30,000 drones flying over the United States. Legislators in at least eleven states want to impose limits on the use of UAVs as worries grow that the unregulated use of drones would erode the liberties of Americans.

  • December, January the top two months in terms of gun purchases in U.S.

    New figures released by the FBI show that Americans, during December and January, have been buying guns in record numbers. Analysts say that behind the surge in gun purchases are two events: the Newtown, Connecticut mass shooting and the moves by the Obama administration to introduce – and, in the case of assault weapons, reintroduce – gun control measures. The FBI figures show that in January, the agency performed 2,495,440 gun background checks, initiated by gun sellers before they sold a gun to a customer.

  • Number of Muslim-Americans involved in domestic terrorism “vanishingly small”

    The number of Muslim-Americans planning or perpetrating terror plots has always been exceedingly small – and it is declining. Fourteen Muslim-Americans were indicted for violent terrorist plots in 2012, down from twenty-one the year before. For the second year in a row, there were no fatalities or injuries from Muslim-American terrorism. For comparison: the United States suffered approximately 14,000 murders in 2012. Since 9/11, Muslim-American terrorism has claimed thirty-three lives in the United States. During the same period, there were more than 180,000 murders committed in the United States.