Law Enforcement Technology

SARCOP: One Team. One Mission. One Map.
The Search and Rescue Common Operating Platform (SARCOP) aggregates multiple emergency management applications and advanced geospatial analytics into a single dashboard, giving response agencies enhanced situational awareness when every second counts.
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New Method for Fingerprint Analysis Holds Great Promise
Overlapping and weak fingerprints pose challenges in criminal cases. A new study offers a solution and brings hope for using chemical residues in fingerprints for personal profiling.
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'Significant' Risks as Facial Recognition in Russia's Subways Goes Regional
In a move that human rights advocates warn carries potential risks for civil rights, Russia has begun expanding its facial-recognition payment system for subways to six cities outside of Moscow.
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To Win the AI Race, China Aims for a Controlled Intelligence Explosion
China’s leader Xi Jinping has his eye on the transformative forces of artificial intelligence to revolutionize the country’s economy and society in the coming decades. But the disruptive, and potentially unforeseen, consequences of this technology may be more than the party-state can stomach.
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I Studied ShotSpotter in Chicago and Kansas City – Here’s What People in Detroit and the More Than 167 Other Cities and Towns Using This Technology Should Know
One method Detroit and other cities facing high levels of gun violence have employed is gunshot detection technology, specifically the industry-leading ShotSpotter product, which uses acoustic sensors to notify police when the system hears gunfire. Since 2020, my colleagues and I have conducted the largest study on this technology. Our research was designed to test both the efficiency and effectiveness of this technology.
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Data Privacy After Dobbs: Is Period Tracking Safe?
Many people think all health care information is protected under the federal privacy law, known as HIPAA. But menstrual cycle tracking apps, along with other health care technologies, like texting platforms that patients can use with doctors, are not. There haven’t been any cases where a menstrual tracking app’s data has been subpoenaed yet, but that’s probably due to the slow speed of which cases proceed through the court system.
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S&T Deploys DETER at the Indy 500
The DHS S&T, CISA, and ERDC teamed up to deploy a new vehicle barrier at this year’s race. S&T is evaluating DETER in real-world environments like the Indy 500 and last year’s NFL Draft to identify operational requirements for law enforcement.
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Detroit Takes Important Step in Curbing the Harms of Face Recognition Technology
In a first-of-its-kind agreement, the Detroit Police Department recently agreed to adopt strict limits on its officers’ use of face recognition technology as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a victim of this faulty technology.
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Hundreds of Tech Companies Want to Cash In on Homeland Security Funding. Here's Who They Are and What They're Selling.
Whenever concerns grow about the security along the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration, the U.S. government generate dollars — hundreds of millions of dollars — for tech conglomerates and start-ups. Who are the vendors who supply or market the technology for the U.S. government’s increasingly AI-powered homeland security efforts, including the so-called “virtual wall” of surveillance along the southern border with Mexico?
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Businesses Are Harvesting Our Biometric Data. The Public Needs Assurances on Security
Visual data capturing and analysis are particularly critical compared to non-visual data. That’s why its growing use by businesses raises so many concerns about privacy and consent. While the public remains unaware of the extent to which their visual data is being captured and utilized, their information will be vulnerable to misuse or exploitation.
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Privacy-Enhancing Browser Extensions Fail to Meet User Needs, New Study Finds
Popular web browser extensions designed to protect user privacy and block online ads are falling short, according to researchers, who are proposing new measurement methodologies to better uncover and quantify these shortcomings.
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China Turns to Private Hackers as It Cracks Down on Online Activists on Tiananmen Square Anniversary
Chinese authorities restrict the flow of information online by banning search terms, scanning social media for subversive messages and blocking access to foreign media and applications that may host censored content. Control of online activity is particularly stringent around the anniversary of the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989 that ended with a bloody crackdown on demonstrators by troops on June 4 of that year.
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The Alaska Supreme Court Takes Aerial Surveillance’s Threat to Privacy Seriously, Other Courts Should Too
In March, the Alaska Supreme Court held that the Alaska Constitution required law enforcement to obtain a warrant before photographing a private backyard from an aircraft. The government argued that the ubiquity of small aircrafts flying overhead in Alaska; the commercial availability of the camera and lens; and the availability of aerial footage of the land elsewhere, meant that Alaska residents did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy The Court divorced the ubiquity and availability of the technology from whether people would reasonably expect the government to use it to spy on them.
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ShotSpotter Improves Detection and Response to Gunfire, but Doesn't Reduce Crime, Research Finds
ShotSpotter gunfire detection technology has delivered as promised in terms of enabling police to quickly detect and respond to gunshots in two American cities, but the controversial technology has not translated into public safety gains.
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Seeing Behind the Mask
There is a need for face recognition to be able to “see behind the mask” for security and safety. Researchers discusses the potential of new software which will allow facial recognition to work despite the mask you use.
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