• Grand Junction, Colorado uses DHS grant to purchase bomb squad equipment

    The Grand Junction Police Department in Colorado recently received two grants to purchase sophisticated new equipment for its bomb squad and new information sharing software; on Monday, the city council authorized the police department to accept the two grants; thanks to a $250,000 grant from DHS, the police department will now be able to purchase a Total Containment Vessel (TCV); Grand Junction also received a $108,000 grant from the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police to purchase new software

  • New York firefighters receive $4.2 million to recruit volunteers

    Last week the Fireman’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY) announced that it had received a $4.2 million grant from DHS to help recruit and train volunteers; the money comes as part of DHS’ Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program; FASNY will use the grant money to launch a public awareness campaign with the goal of attracting and maintaining more than 15,000 new volunteer firefighters over the next four years; approximately 75 percent of New York’s firefighters are volunteers, but the state has struggled to attract enough people in recent years

  • Researchers tout efficacy of reporting suspicious activity in foiled terror plots

    Following the death of Osama bin Laden and with fears of a retaliatory attack on the rise, public policy researchers are touting the efficacy of the new “See Something Say Something” campaign which encourages individuals to report any suspicious activity they see; of the sixty-eight stopped terrorist attacks from 1999 to 2009, nearly 40 percent of the plots were stopped following a report of suspicious activity; critics say that the “See Something Say Something” campaign inundates law enforcement officials with tips that could take valuable time and resources from real investigations

  • Palestinians catch Israel, Syria, and Hezbollah by surprise

    On 15 May 1948 the State of Israel was born; for Israel this is Independence Day, but for Palestinians the day is naqba (catastrophe in Arabic); this year the naqba commemoration included something new, and perhaps more menacing: hundreds of Palestinians gathered at two spots along the Israeli border, then tried to force their way into Israel; fourteen Palestinians were killed and a few dozens injured in ensuing clashes with the Israeli military; it is easy to accuse the Syrian leadership of allowing the demonstrators to cross into Israel in the hope of inviting an Israeli military reaction which would divert attention from the daily killing of civilians by the Syrian military; it is also plausible to argue that the Iranians, opposing any peace negotiations between the Arab states and Israel, welcomed the clashes along the Israel-Lebanon border; these arguments are plausible, but problematic; the record shows that Syria and Hezbollah have always insisted on complete monopoly over the use of force along their respective borders with Israel

  • Texas House prohibits intrusive airport pat downs

    The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill that would make invasive pat downs at airports a crime; pat down procedures that would be covered under the measure are inspections that touch the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person including through the clothing, or touches the other person in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person; the law would not be enforceable since state legislatures have no authority over federal agencies such as the TSA

  • Arlington, Texas hopes to keep aerial drone

    The police department of Arlington, Texas is examining ways to fund an unmanned surveillance drone; the drone was originally purchased with grant money from DHS to assist local police officers with security during Super Bowl XLV held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington last February; the drone is still technically owned its unidentified manufacturer and the City Council is debating how to pay for the drone’s operation and maintenance

  • Remote bomb detection sensors

    European scientists are embarking on a project to develop a network of state-of-the-art sensors capable of detecting hidden explosives; the sensors will work by detecting the chemical traces of explosive vapors in the air in order to provide early warning to security services and protect vulnerable urban populations from the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), often used by terrorist organizations

  • Is the terrorist threat overhyped? -- II

    Providing for homeland security is an expensive proposition; government-wide homeland security expenditures grew from about $12 billion in FY2000 to $66 billion in VY2009; DHS budget grew from $33 billion in 2003 to $55 billion in 2010 — an increase of 45 percent after adjusting for inflation; there are indirect costs to homeland security, too: the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates that major homeland security regulations — by “major” OMB means regulations that costs more than $100 a year — cost the U.S. economy between $3.4 and $6.9 billion a year; since not too many Americans have been killed by terrorist acts, the post-9/11 added spending on homeland security means that the United States spends between $63 million and $630 million per one life saved; this an order of magnitude more than what experts, using accepted market measures, would consider the value of a statistical life

  • New Jersey launches sophisticated new driver's license

    In compliance with Secure ID, the federal law that mandates that states create more stringent identification cards, New Jersey has unveiled a sophisticated new driver’s license; according to New Jersey officials, the new Enhanced Digital Driver’s License puts New Jersey among the ten states with the most secure identity cards; to prevent counterfeiting, security features include an embedded pattern on the license, one and two dimensional bar codes, and “purposeful errors” like misspellings; to implement these new licenses, the state’s MVCs have had to undergo a $19 million upgrade to install new computer systems, hardware, and software

  • Is the terrorist threat overhyped?

    There are serious people who raise thoughtful questions about the nature and scope of the terrorist threat to Western societies, and because they do not accept the assumptions of both the Bush and Obama administrations about the nature of the threat, they criticize these administrations’ policies; this group of critics of current policies are joined by others who belong to a second group of critics: in this second group we find people who do not share the assessment of members of the first group about the nature of the threat, but who join them in criticizing government anti-terror policies as too expensive, to intrusive, and ineffective; a new, thought-provoking article on the subject performs a useful service in that it should keep advocates of expensive and intrusive government anti-terrorism policies honest

  • Kansas House cuts troubled agency's role in funding of bio lab

    DHS has chosen Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan, Kansas, as the location for the new, $650 million Level 4 BioLab, which will replace the aging lab on Plum Island, New York; the federal laboratory will be the U.S. premier facility for research into countering possible bioterrorism attacks and threats to the nation’s food supply; the Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) was supposed to handle the issuing of $105 million in bonds to develop the lab, but the KBA’s chief executive has recently resigned under a cloud, and the agency’s business practices are now being investigated the Johnson County District Attorney; the Kansas House voted to cut the KBA out of handling the bond issue; “We didn’t want any kind of hint of a problem,” said one House member

  • Don't mess with these Orlando mall cops

    Far from being a piecemeal operation, security at The Mall at Millennia, a luxury mall in Orlando, Florida, is a highly sophisticated operation that uses the latest law enforcement tools, techniques, and technology; 50 unarmed security officers maintain a conspicuous presence throughout the 1.2 million square foot mall; the mall also has a comprehensive network of surveillance cameras that are monitored in a twenty-four hour command center; to prepare security personnel for emergency scenarios, the department conducts tabletop exercises with local law enforcement officials every six months; the mall also works closely with local law enforcement officials to catch local thieves and participates in sting operations

  • Brooklyn mosque moves forward, clears legal hurdle

    A mosque in Brooklyn, New York is moving ahead with construction plans after a New York state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by an anti-mosque organization; its construction was blocked after local residents began actively protesting stating that the religious facility would negatively affect the neighborhood; Judge Mark Partnow ruled in favor of the mosque’s proponents after Lamis Deek, the attorney representing the mosque’s builder, suggested that opposition was based on racism, going so far as to call protestors terrorists; Albery Butzel, the attorney representing Bay People, said that the organization is not anti-Muslim and insisted that the group’s opposition was based on a lack of parking

  • Crackdown spreads across Syria

    The Syrian security forces have expanded their campaign against anti-government protesters; the number of civilian killed stands at 780, and the experts told the New York Times that the regimes has so far arrested more than 10,000 people suspected of harboring anti-regime sentiments; Sunni neighborhoods in the city of Homs, Syria’s third largest city, have been shelled; the regime continues the tactics of surrounding cities and towns with army unites, and cutting these cities off from power, communication, and the Internet; the Obama administration is edging closer to calling for an end to the long rule of the Assad family; one official said the first step would be to say for the first time that Assad has forfeited his legitimacy to rule, a major policy shift; meanwhile, international pressure has caused Syria to drop its plans to run for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council; Kuwait, which was expected to stand in 2013, will take its place

  • Sophisticated new gadgets helped Navy SEALs take down bin Laden

    In the daring raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Navy Seals were likely outfitted with latest in high-tech weapons and gadgets; Fox News speculates on five key technologies that could have helped the highly trained members of Navy SEAL Team 6 successfully complete their mission including bomb sniffing dogs, satellite-linked helmet cameras, and modified stealth Black Hawk helicopter