• NYPD looking for technology to prevent friendly fire

    The recent accidental shooting of a plain clothes policeman by fellow officers has prompted NYPD to seek technology to prevent friendly fire accidents; the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will help

  • San Diego uses biometrics to identify and remove criminal aliens

    San Diego County Sheriff’s Department deputies are the first law enforcement unit in California to use DHS Secure Community program to receive biometric-based immigration information

  • Hardin, Montana, wants to take in Guantanamo prisoners

    Hardin, Montana (pop. 4,300) had a problem: it invested $27 million in a 464-bed modern prison facility which is standing empty; the city council offered to use it to house Guantanamo prisoners; Montana’s congressional delegation objects

  • Scientists unsure how Tasers work

    There is a growing interest in nonlethal weapon, and Taser stun devices are among the most heavily used — and researched — nonlethal systems; scientists are still unsure how, exactly, these devices achieve their stunning effect

  • Court: use of GPS to track criminals requires warrant

    The New York State’s supreme court ruled that the police cannot use GPS to track a criminal suspect without a warrant; majority decision said: “the use of these powerful devices presents a significant and, to our minds, unacceptable risk of abuse”

  • London to deploy satellite-based speed-control system

    London buses, cabs, and government cars will be equipped with a satellite-based speed-control system: A centralized computer database will contain the speed limits on each of the city’s streets; a satellite will note the location of the GPS-equipped vehicles, and if the vehicle is going over the speed limit, the computer will seize control of the vehicle’s throttle, letting off the gas until it eases back down to the speed limit

  • Britain to remove some DNA profiles from database

    About 5.2 percent of the U.K. population is on the national DNA database, compared with just 0.5 percent in the United States; the European Court of Human Rights rules that Britain’s DNA database is incompatible with the requirements of democracy, and the Home Office says it will begin to remove the DNA of innocent citizens

  • European Court: Scottish DNA database system is "fairer and proportionate"

    the European Court of Human Rights ruled the DNA databases in Britain, Wales, and Northern Ireland “could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society”; the European Court considered the system in Scotland “fair and proportionate”

  • ShotSpotter to acquire QinetiQ North America's SECURES

    ShotSpotter will acquire SECURES Acoustic Gunshot Detection System
    from QinetiQ North America, strengthening its position in the acoustic detection arena; 35 localities in the United States already deploy ShotSpotter systems in high-crime areas

  • DoJ's IG criticizes DHS terrorist Watch List

    Inspector General says Watch List is flawed; FBI was also slow in removing names that should not have been on the list

  • Hackers hold medical records hostage

    Hackers broke into a Virgina pharmaceutical clearinghouse Web site, deleted records of more than 8 million patients, and replaced the site’s homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records

  • Surge in armored car sales in Brazil

    Brazilians have to live with exceedingly high levels of crime — in the late 1990s, for example, the UN ranked the Jardim Ângela section of São Paulo as the most violent neighborhood in the world — at the same time that government agencies, owing to corruption or incompetence, fail to provide security; São Paulo leads the country — and the world — in making and selling armored cars; tax breaks now allow the middle class to buy protection which once was the reserve of the rich

  • Republican oppose Safran's FBI contract

    Republicans legislators express opposition to the FBI awarding a large biometric contract to French company Safran; the company is partly owned by the French government

  • Dutch police uses unmanned mini-helicopter to sniff out cannabis

    Police in the noerthwest region of the Netherlands asked their engineers to design an unmanned helicopter to hover over the region and sniff out traces of weed smell in the air samples it collects; new methods does not require a warrant to enter buildings

  • Blast-proof CCTV tested by DHS's S&T

    CCTVs help the police identify terrorists who perpetrate an attack; trouble is, the blast set by the terrorists may destroy the camera and its video; there are two solutions: the more expensive one is a real-time streaming-video CCTV which sends images back to HQ until the moment the camera is destroyed; the cheaper alternative is an indestructible video CCTV