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DoJ to take DNA samples from all detainees
Effort to stop sexual predators now seen as an effective anti-illegal immigration measure; millions of DNA samples to be processed, but FBI labs lag behind; business opportunities abound, especially in the robotics field
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Procera new data intrcepting solution meets CALEA new requirement
What with the firestorm over the NSA domestic eavesdroping campaign, broadband providers have a 14 May deadline to allow law enforcement agencies to intercept and capture suspicious data transmission without compromising the privacy of innocent cstomers; a California company comes up with a solution
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U.K. introduces first-in-the-world shoeprint database
Forensic Science Service asks shoe manufacturers to provide sole impressions; more than 1,000 Nike trainers are enrolled already; Cinderella analysis guides police to the suspect
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Morphix mounts a methamphetamine detector to a UGV
Developed with a USMC grant, New York, Chicago, and other cities show interest in a chemical sensing system that can be worn on the clothing or attached to a robot; Chameleon system relies on armbands and disposable cartridges to provide a reading
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NYPD refuses to use $140 million subway radio system
Long overdue and overbudget, the system is troubled by widespread interference and decrepit cabling; E.A. Technologies and Petrocelli Electric struggle to explain the problem
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New and improved taser overcomes clothing and fur
Insulation often prevents full immobilization; new technique takes advantage of instinct to pull out the barbs; once touched, an extra shock is transmitted to the criminal’s bare hands
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Foster-Miller receives $1 million in DoD funding for Boat Trap
Development with Coast Guard seems to have paid off; hand-held system, launched from a helicopter, uses a ballistic net to tangle a boat’s engine; 100 percent success rate claimed; Moscow Mills Manufacturing lends a hand
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Super Thermal teams up with Colorado State for DHS grant
Team hopes for a $1 million grant for further development of cooling and breathing apparatus; system designed with biological and chemical emergencies in mind; cryogenic air a key component
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FBI's Sentinel program works out the kinks, worries about funding
DoJ inspector general sees progress, at least in comparison to the failed Virtual Case File program; $150 million needed, but congress will likely give much less; Lockheed Martin stands to gain if budgetting issues are resolved
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Oxford City outfits housing employees with tracking and recording badges
New technology allows rent collectors to quietly raise the alarm during a confrontation; push a button and an open channel is created; conversations are recorded for legal purposes; Connexion2, Vodafone, and Identicom provide the technology
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AS&E wins $13 million NATO deal
Contract covers a range of explosives detection needs, including parcel, personnel, and cargo; no ZBVs in this deal, despite company’s oft-reported success
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Zareba reports devastating first quarter numbers
With net income down 94 percent, the electrical fence company goes through growing pains as it attempts to shift from controlling livestock to controlling prisons and oil refineries
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Federal government moves forward with national fusion centers
New rules will streamline security classifications from 100 to six, removing a major obstacle to the implementation of an effective information sharing environment; new Interagency Threat Assessment Coordination Group to be based at DHS
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ERF Wireless to build $5 million network for Louisiana police and public
Unique deal bolsters Louisiana State Police communications while also serving poorer rural areas; local banks, who will also have access, will foot most of the bill, but the police will provide the towers; a unique financing arrangement provides a model for other company’s seeking a PR boost
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Chertoff reiterates support for municipal data fusion centers
Intent is to improve information sharing between federal and local authorities; agency has already invested $380 million in centers in New York, Illinois, Maryland, and elsewhere; 55 more to come on-line by the end of next fiscal year; facilitating security clearances another critical objective
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The long view
U.K. Parliamentary Report: “Threat from Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism on an Upward Trajectory”
“The threat from Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism is on an upward trajectory, populated by an increasing number of young people and driven by the internet,” said Julian Lewis, MP, the chairman of the U.K. Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee. The committee has just released a detailed report on the threat of terrorism in the United Kingdom.
Rise in Firearm Homicides Mostly Hit South-Central and Midwest States
A rise in U.S. firearm homicides in recent years has primarily affected states in the South-Central and Midwest portion of the nation, as well as disproportionately affecting people who are American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Black. While overall rates of racial and geographic disparities in firearm homicides declined in previous decades, the recent spike in firearm killings has reversed that improvement, worsening long-existing disparities.
D.B. Cooper, the Changing Nature of Hijackings and the Foundation for Today’s Airport Security
Many Americans may associate airport security with 9/11, but it was a wave of hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s that laid the foundation for today’s airport security protocols. Especially, the 24 November 1971 hijacking of a Northwest Orient 727 plane, after take-off from Portland, Oregon, by a man known to the American public as D. B. Cooper, captured the public’s imagination, and drove the U.S. government to establish the first anti-hijacking security protocols.
Updated Software Reference Library Will Aid in Criminal Investigations
A recent update to a publicly downloadable database maintained by NIST will make it easier to sift through computers, cellphones and other electronic equipment seized in police raids, potentially helping law enforcement catch sexual predators and other criminals.
Five Years After “Unite the Right”: Reflections on Charlottesville for Today’s Threat Landscape
Five years ago, racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists from across the United States traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia for the “Unite the Right” rally. Nicholas Rasmussen and Sarah Kenny write that “Unite the Right” is best appreciated as a watershed moment in U.S. politics. “With the clear vision of hindsight, the incidents in Charlottesville five years ago sounded a wakeup call about where the United States may be headed.” The very real threat “of political violence and radicalization that flow from the highly toxic political climate we currently live in, make for a turbulent domestic threat landscape in both city parks and virtual chatrooms.”