• Micro Unmanned Ground Vehicle helps soldiers, first responders

    Weighing just over ten pounds, Dragon Runner 10 (DR10) is small enough to carry in an assault pack and rugged enough to throw into buildings and hostile environments; the DR10 has multiple sensor and payload options, and thus is suitable for reconnaissance and surveillance missions to support small military units, patrols, and first responder teams

  • Phoenix police banned from sporting tattoos

    In an effort to present a more professional image, an increasing number of police departments across the United States are requiring officers to cover up their tattoos; the Phoenix police department recently began requiring its officers to cover its tattoos, a move that has generated criticism due to the intense Arizona heat

  • Face-mapping app for smartphone searching

    A new app, when combined with a centralized server, combs people’s cell phones looking to find photos that have a face in them that match what someone is looking for; the app could be used to look for an abducted child, or a criminal hiding in crowds

  • Anonymous retaliates against BART

    The hacking collective Anonymous released personal data on Sunday belonging to more than 2,000 public transport customers in the San Francisco area in retaliation for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system’s shutdown of mobile phone service on Thursday night

  • Portable, super-high-resolution 3-D imaging

    A simple new imaging system could help manufacturers inspect their products, forensics experts identify weapons, and doctors identify cancers.

  • U.K. police procurement hub goes live

    The U.K. launches a new, Amazon-style online procurement process which enables police forces to buy specified goods and services online; all forty-three U.K. police forces are expected to be using the hub by June 2012

  • Four days of rioting strains U.K. legal system

    The ongoing unrest in the United Kingdom has begun to strain the country’s criminal justice and law enforcement system; with police arresting hundreds of people over the last few days, local judges have had trouble keeping up with the case load and facilities have quickly become overcrowded

  • Anonymous hacker collective hits rural law enforcement

    In its latest exploit, global hacker collective Anonymous claimed to release ten GB of stolen data from more than seventy rural sheriff’s departments across the United States, leaking sensitive information that could compromise the agencies’ investigations

  • DHS "pre-crime" detectors draw criticism

    A plan by DHS officials to use automated machines to identify people before they commit a criminal or terrorist act is drawing sharp criticism from privacy advocates; DHS is currently developing intention detectors under the Future Attributer Screening Technology (FAST) program; the FAST security checkpoints are outfitted with a sophisticated suite of sensors that are designed to identify several physiological indicators like heart rate or the steadiness of a person’s gaze

  • CrimeView Dashboard helps fight crime in real-time

    In an effort to share information in an easily manageable format, the Chesapeake Police Department in Virginia recently implemented the CrimeView Dashboard; CrimeView is a cloud-based software system that allows an entire agency to monitor criminal activity in real-time with maps, charts, and reports

  • Hi-tech bus helps catch drunk drivers

    With the help of a new $350,000 Breath Alcohol Testing (BAT) bus, police in Lafayette, Louisiana are cracking down on drunk drivers; with the BAT bus, officers have access to five computer stations, three breathalyzers, and a yellow line on the floor for suspected drunk drivers to walk along

  • Virginia police go 3D

    AREVA, an international nuclear services firm, provided the Central Virginia Crash Team with two 3D scanners that use lasers to reconstruct traffic crashes as well as crime scenes to create accurate, scale models as evidence

  • FBI completes new information sharing system

    Late last month the FBI completed work on its newest information sharing database that will allow local, state, regional, and other law enforcement agencies across the United States to pool information; with the National Data Exchange (N-Dex), local investigators can now pull up records like incident reports, criminal incarceration records, and similar investigations from across the United States

  • Man purchases FBI, CIA, and Chicago police badges online

    Last month a man was arrested after airport screeners at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport found a Chicago police badge in his baggage; a search of the man’s apartment revealed that he had obtained more than fifty federal, state, and local law enforcement badges from agencies including the Illinois state police, the FBI, the CIA, and the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.

  • Virginia Tech lockdown ends, no gunman found

    In an attempt to avoid a repeat of the 2007 mass shooting which left thirty-two people dead, officials at Virginia Tech locked down its campus yesterday after receiving a report of a suspicious man who may have been armed; after an exhaustive search by local police that did not yield any results, authorities decided to lift the lockdown