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N.J. county to purchase mobile morgue with DHS grant
Burlington County, New Jersey officials plan to use this year’s DHS grant of $775,000 to purchase surveillance for the county’s radio communications towers, license plate readers, and a mobile morgue unit capable of transporting eight bodies; the mobile morgue is used to provide morgue support in a mass fatality event
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Foreign orders for Mass.-built bomb-disposal robots
Massachusetts-based robot maker received orders for twenty-seven additional bomb-disposal robots from unnamed international customers; the company has delivered bomb-disposal robots to more than twenty-five countries
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Sector Report for Tuesday, 8 February 2011: Law Enforcement Technology
This report contains the following stories.
Plus 2 additional stories
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ATF budget cuts hurt efforts to stop illegal guns heading to Mexico
The proposed budget cuts for the ATF could seriously undermine Project Gunrunner, the Obama administration’s efforts to stem the flow of guns across the border to drug cartels; White House budget office proposed cutting nearly $160 million, or 12.8 percent, from the ATF’s budget; under federal rules, the last personnel hired are the first to be fired, and in the last several years the ATF has primarily focused on hiring for the border initiative; in 2009 alone, ATF agents seized 2,589 firearms and 265,000 rounds of ammunition headed across the border; so far, agents have traced more than 65,000 guns in Mexico back to the United States
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iPhone app helps police "see" through walls
Law enforcement officials are using SafetyNet Mobile, a powerful new iPhone app, to fight crime; the app allows police officers to quickly access all emergency dispatch information including maps, warnings, hazard information, and other critical data; to access the emergency dispatch database, the officer simply points the iPhone or iPad’s camera at a location; this technology allows police to “see” behind doors or walls by alerting them to any potential dangers inside; the app installs on any iPhone or iPad; SafetyNet Mobile has been successfully tested by three police departments in California and is currently being rolled out
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N.C. law enforcement pistols no good
North Carolina’s Alcohol Law Enforcement agency says 150 new pistols bought for their agents at $1,055 each were so unreliable they got rid of them; the Kimber .45-caliber pistols repeatedly malfunctioned during training exercises, with rounds jamming, sights breaking, and the weapons’ safety buttons sometimes falling off
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New York cracks down on illegal gun sales
An undercover operation by New York City investigators at an Arizona gun show highlighted the ease with which people with questionable backgrounds can purchase weapons; investigators were able to purchase several handguns despite clearly stating that they would not be able to pass background checks; federal laws do not require background checks at gun shows, but it is illegal for dealers to sell weapons to individuals who they suspect could not pass a background check due to mental instability or a criminal record; investigators were able to purchase a Glock and large capacity magazines, the same used in the Tucson shooting, without any background checks; terrorists seeking to obtain weapons have been found purchasing weapons from gun shows
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ATF allowing guns into mexico
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) — the agency tasked with keeping U.S. guns from being smuggled to Mexico — has now come under fire for allegedly allowing firearms to cross the border into Mexico; Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to the ATF stating that his office had “received numerous allegations that the ATF sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers, who then allegedly transported these weapons throughout the Southwest border area and into Mexico”
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Portland's police bureau reviews taser policies
The Portland Police department has reviewed the use of taser stun guns by officers, and found that policies and practices could be improved; after examining fifty cases of taser use, the study found that in 80 percent of the cases, the use of a taser gun led to a resolution of the situation
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Clothes as silent witnesses
New research seeks to recover fingerprint ridge detail and impressions from fabrics — a technique that has up until now proved difficult; it is the first time in more than thirty years that fingerprints on fabrics have been a major focus for research and the team has already had a number of successes; the technique, known as vacuum metal deposition (VMD), uses gold and zinc to recover the fingerprint
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Gun dealers lost more than 62,000 guns since 2008
A recent report found that U.S. gun dealers lost more than 62,000 guns in the past three years; roughly fifty-six guns go missing each day; a gun is “lost” when it leaves a store without a background check or a formal record of sale; the number of missing guns is estimated to be significantly higher as the ATF only inspects about 20 percent of gun shops each year; these guns are highly coveted by criminals as they are virtually untraceable; each year on average, there are roughly 600 ATF inspectors who oversee the 60,000 gun shops across the United States, inspecting each shop on average once every eight years
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Detecting criminals coming back to the scene of the crime
Criminals tempted to return to the scene of the crime may want to resist this impulse; Notre Dame University researchers are developing a tool which will reliably identify criminals who may be hanging out at the crime scene after the event; the Questionable Observer Detector (QuOD) can process any available video clips of groups of people present at the scene of event, spanning different times and locations to pick out any person who appears frequently in them
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A first: biometrics used to sentence criminal
A judge ruled that biometric facial recognition could be submitted as evidence marking the first time such evidence has been used in a criminal trial; this move surprised many legal and scientific experts as facial recognition technology does not follow basic legal standards required for evidence; the decision may or not become a legal precedent as it was not made by a California appellate or supreme court
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Handlers' beliefs affect explosive- and drug-sniffing dog performance
Drug- and explosives-sniffing dog/handler teams’ performance is affected by human handlers’ beliefs, possibly in response to subtle, unintentional handler cues; a new study found that detection-dog/handler teams erroneously “alerted,” or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times — particularly when the handler believed that there was scent present
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New Jersey's detention center expansion underway
With the growing number of deportations of illegal aliens from the United States, federal officials expect demand for space to rise within coming years; Newark county officials are awaiting approval by federal authorities to upgrade and expand the Essex County Correctional Facility, significantly increasing its detainee capacity. The county’s proposal would provide a less punitive setting for detainees along with improved medical care, amenities, and federal oversight
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More headlines
The long view
AI-Controlled Fighter Jets May Be Closer Than We Think — and Would Change the Face of Warfare
By Arun Dawson
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
By Nancy Huddleston
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.”