• U.S. communities support surveillance systems

    Despite calls by the ACLU to halt the expansion of the use of CCTVs in public places, towns across the United States are eager to get their hands on the extra sets of eyes; midsized communities across the United States are installing more surveillance video cameras in an effort to cut down on crime, without having to spend more money on additional law enforcement officials

  • Oregon’s new budget may kill interoperability system

    The goal of the $600 million Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network (OWIN) project is to design and construct a reliable public safety radio system for emergency responders, comply with the FCC’s 2013 deadline to transition state radios, consolidate four existing independent state radio systems, and create a network that all public safety radio users in Oregon can access; the governor proposes to halt the project for lack of money

  • 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

  • DHS border security searches of electronics questioned

    Debate continues over DHS’s search and confiscation of materials at international U.S. borders; the latest case to make the headlines is that of David House, 23, an MIT researcher whose laptop, flash drives, and cameras were confiscated at the U.S.-Mexico border by DHS on his way back into the United States after a vacation in Mexico; House writes in a blog post that he is one of few individuals who are able to visit Manning in his detention facility in Quantico, Virginia

  • 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

  • Iranian suicide-bombing book found in Arizona desert

    A book celebrating suicide bombers has been found in the Arizona desert just north of the U.S.- Mexican border; last year DHS had in custody thousands of detainees from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen; U.S. Border Patrol statistics indicate that there were 108,025 OTMs — or illegal immigrants other than Mexicans — detained in 2006, compared to 165,178 in 2005 and 44,614 in 2004

  • New Jersey towns warm up to electronic traffic ticketing

    Officers will be able electronically to issue summonses and tickets for moving and nonmoving violations in a fraction of the time it takes to write them by hand; the efficiency should free officers to do more police work — a benefit as departments deal with reduced manpower, said officers and advocates of the technology

  • California launches forgery-proof driver's license

    California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has begun issuing a redesigned security-enhanced drivers license which is loaded with features to thwart would-be forgers and identity thieves; this is the first major revision to the card since 2001

  • Budget cuts harm cybersecurity in the states, survey says

    New survey finds that many states lack sufficient cybersecurity resources; the problem is not just funding: many state CISOs lack the visibility and authority to effectively drive security down to the individual agency level

  • DHS gives New York $18 million for radiation detection system

    DHS will hand New York $18.5 million today to keep the city’s prototype dirty-bomb detection system running; the nuclear detection operation is run out of an operations center in the city, featuring more than 4,500 pieces of radiation detection equipment, many equipped with GPS locators

  • Arizona waits for court decision before changing immigration law

    In response to the 28 July decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton to block the more important provisions of the controversial Arizona immigration law, Governor Jan Brewer suggested that Arizona may “tweak” the law in order to address Bolton’s objections; Arizona legislatures say there is no point in rewriting the law while the state is appealing the judge’s decision; in any event, since Bolton blocked the provisions on grounds that they are preempted by federal authority over immigration matters, then the preemption issue will have to be settled by the courts before the legislature revisits the law

  • Appropriations bill adds money for port security, Coast Guard, ground transit

    A homeland security appropriations bill being considered by Congress would increase money for port security, save a threatened Coast Guard program from elimination and establish harsher penalties for anyone who intentionally violates airport security rules; the bill allocates $350 million for port security, an increase of $50 million over last year, and $350 million for rail, bus and transit security, a $38 million increase

  • California homeland security market as large as the entire U.S. aviation security market

    New report about the homeland security market in the United States finds that DHS’s spending account for only 18.3 percent of the total homeland security spending in the United States; the combined state and local market share leads the field with 23.7 percent, with the Department of Defense coming in second with 22.5 percent; California’s FY2009 homeland security market was nearly as large as the entire U.S. aviation security market

  • Georgia will be base for WMD homeland security response force

    DHS is setting up ten regional Homeland Response Forces tasked with handling weapons of mass destruction incidents; each will be assigned 570 personnel; the force will be trained to respond within six to twelve hours to regional disasters like chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield explosive incidents

  • To qualify for lucrative defense research work, Florida research park undergoes anti-terrorism makeover

    Florida’s largest research park, located in east Orange County, has quietly and subtly transformed some of its most prominent facilities into anti-terrorism fortresses for the high-tech military agencies located there; the research center has now become a defense-industry “nerve center” that looks and operates more like a military base than ever before