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Florida’s falling crime rate has experts puzzled
With unemployment at record highs and police departments struggling with budget cuts, the fact that Florida’s crime rate has fallen nearly 33 percent in the last decade has many experts puzzled
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Sector Report for Tuesday, 29 November 2011: Law Enforcement Technology
This report contains the following stories.
Plus 1 additional story.
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Texting 911 in emergencies
The Post Falls police department in Idaho is testing a new 911 system that would allow residents to report emergencies via text message or e-mail
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LAPD named best counterterrorism squad
The Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau (CTSOB) recently received Government Security News’ highest honor for a division of its kind
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Digital DNA the new DNA
With the increasing ubiquity of computers, smart phones, and other electronic devices comes a torrent of “digital DNA,” which can be used to record an individual’s every move and even convict them of a crime
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Georgia to build privately funded first responder training center
A local firm in Georgia is set to build a privately funded training facility for first responders that would bring more than 100 jobs to Perry; the sophisticated training center, built by Guardian Centers of Georgia, would help prepare first responders for natural disasters and terrorist attacks
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LAPD to rely solely on computers to fight crime
In an unprecedented move, for the next three months the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) will rely entirely on computer software to decide where to deploy patrol officers; the predictive analytics software examines data from past crimes to determine when and where certain crimes are likely to occur next so police can be on hand to stop them before they are committed
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Insects to become first responders, aid in search and rescue
Researchers are finding ways to harvest energy from insects, holding the promise of using insects to aid in first response and search and rescue, and monitor hazardous situations before sending in humans
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Early 9/11 responders at greater risk of heart disease
A new study warns that 9/11 responders who arrived immediately after the attacks could be at greater risk of heart disease; researchers examined the blood vessel walls of thirty-one 9/11 responders and found that the nineteen men and women who went to work before 13 September had much greater damage to their blood vessel walls than those who arrived later
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DHS takes down suspected Mexican gang members in New York
On 16 November DHS agents arrested twenty-five suspected members of the Mexican Los Vagos gang on a variety of charges including murder conspiracy, assault, firearms offenses, narcotics trafficking, and immigration violations. Los Vagos allegedly used drug trafficking and violence to defend their turf from the Latin Kings, a rival gang
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NYPD spying on Muslims leads to spiral of mistrust
Following the revelation that the New York City police department was spying on the daily lives of ordinary Muslims, community activists have launched a campaign encouraging people to avoid directly reporting suspicious activity to the police
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Pennsylvania’s homeland security office to operate out of state police HQ
The Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Homeland Security will move its operations to the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) headquarters in Harrisburg; the office was merged into the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) during the previous administration, but the governor determined that relocating the office to the state police headquarters would result in an even greater combination of intelligence gathering and sharing
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Harvard-designed swarm robots licensed to Swiss company
Harvard researchers developed Kilobot — a low-cost, easy-to-use robotic system for advancing development of “swarms” of robots; robot swarms might one day tunnel through rubble to find survivors, monitor the environment and remove contaminants, and self-assemble to form support structures in collapsed buildings
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Irish police consider deploying drones
Police in northern Ireland are considering deploying small surveillance drones to help combat crime and the dissident republican threat as an alternative to helicopters; with police suffering budget shortages, many agencies cannot afford the roughly £7 million, or $11 million, a year it takes to maintain a helicopter
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Overcoming full disk encryption in digital investigations
The increasing use of full disk encryption (FDE) can significantly hamper forensic digital investigations, potentially preventing access to all digital evidence in a case
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The long view
AI-Controlled Fighter Jets May Be Closer Than We Think — and Would Change the Face of Warfare
Could we be on the verge of an era where fighter jets take flight without pilots – and are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI)? US R Adm Michael Donnelly recently said that an upcoming combat jet could be the navy’s last one with a pilot in the cockpit.
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Need for National Information Clearinghouse for Cybercrime Data, Categorization of Cybercrimes: Report
There is an acute need for the U.S. to address its lack of overall governance and coordination of cybercrime statistics. A new report recommends that relevant federal agencies create or designate a national information clearinghouse to draw information from multiple sources of cybercrime data and establish connections to assist in criminal investigations.
Autonomous Weapon Systems: No Human-in-the-Loop Required, and Other Myths Dispelled
“The United States has a strong policy on autonomy in weapon systems that simultaneously enables their development and deployment and ensures they could be used in an effective manner, meaning the systems work as intended, with the same minimal risk of accidents or errors that all weapon systems have,” Michael Horowitz writes.
Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles
To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”