• Graduate student develops emergency communication Twitter app

    A graduate student at the University of Colorado has developed a smartphone app that makes it easier for first responders and emergency personnel to communicate via Twitter during disasters; without a standardized syntax, emergency personnel, affected individuals, information officers, and journalists were having trouble communicating on Twitter

  • Alabama explores shirt-cameras for police

    With the increasing availability of cheap wearable cameras, more and more police officers could be recording their every move

  • Colorado slashes auto-theft rate with fusion center

    In 2005 Colorado had one of the highest rates of vehicle theft in the country, but thanks to the dogged efforts of local law enforcement officials and the Auto Theft Intelligence Coordination Center the state is now below the national average

  • Free database helps crack cold case from 1984

    A cold case investigation into the whereabouts of a man who went missing in 1984 was recently solved with the help of a free online law enforcement database

  • Federal prison guard arrests increase nearly 90 percent

    Over the past decade, arrests of federal prison guards have increased by nearly 90 percent and misconduct investigations have doubled according to a recently released Justice Department Inspector General report

  • NATO: 10,000 Libyan shoulder-fired missiles unaccounted for

    Senior NATO officials said that at least 10,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles are unaccounted for in Libya, and that at least some of them may have fallen in the hands of al Qaeda operatives; the missiles are known as SAM-7 by NATO designation and 9K32 Strela-2 in Russia, and typically have a range of about four kilometers and an infra-red guidance system; more than forty civilian aircraft have been hit by these portable surface-to-air missiles since 1975, causing about twenty-eight crashes and more than 800 deaths around the world

  • Nonlethal microwave weapon successfully tested

    Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) is a nonlethal alternative to kinetic weapons that neutralizes electronic targets; it would allow the military to focus on these targets while minimizing or eliminating collateral damage; Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have successfully completed the missile’s first flight test

  • Mississippi wildlife officers want bigger guns

    The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks says it needs bigger guns; the agency hopes to purchase 250 high-powered AR-15 assault rifles to boost its crime fighting power and is currently accepting bids

  • Immigration raid nets nearly 3,000 illegal immigrants

    On Wednesday, federal immigration authorities announced they had detained nearly 3,000 illegal aliens in the largest nation-wide raid of its kind; of the 3,000 aliens arrested, more than 1,600 were felons convicted of crimes like manslaughter, attempted murder, armed robbery, sex crimes against minors, and drug trafficking

  • U.S. Army buys Raptor's MIPs-based detectors

    Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) technology is capable of selectively sensing microscopic amounts of explosives or other molecules that are dangerous for humans and the environment, such as toxins, chemical agents, biological agents, pesticides, and poisons; the U.S. Army wants more MIPs detectors

  • Report finds Texas border violence worsening

    A recently released report concludes that violence from the Mexican government’s war against the drug cartels is increasingly spreading into the United States; the report found that as the Mexican military cracks down further on drug cartels, these organizations have pushed further north into Texas to create a “sanitary zone”

  • Predicting race and ethnicity from irises now possible

    Conventional wisdom holds that irises, like fingerprints, are unique to each individual and have little similarities between ethnic groups or gender, but a groundbreaking new study indicates that biometric scanners can actually predict race and gender based on iris texture alone; the study’s findings are important in that it opens new avenues for research that previously were not thought possible

  • Industry displays unmanned systems to law maker

    Of the 19,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, only about 300 have aviation units; most law enforcement agencies cannot afford several million dollars for a helicopter, as well as the $1,500 per hour to operate it; UAVs offer a cost-effective solution

  • NYPD has means to take down a plane "in very extreme situation"

    The NYPD created a counterterrorism unit following the 9/11 attacks; New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that the counterterrorism unit has the means to take down an aircraft “in a very extreme situation”

  • Infantry now has ultra lightweight portable mine clearance system

    A new mine-clearing system from light weight and portable; its cost minimized by its modular design — which means that users only need to replace consumed module such as the rocket delivery unit rather than the entire system