Tag: LAWENFORCEMENT

In reaction to Seattle's high rate of car theft, local cops are using Twitter to help track down stolen vehicles. The city is asking its citizens to contribute to the search for missing vehicles in 140-character bursts. Police departments have used Twitter to send out alerts to citizens, and occasionally to receive tips, but this new account launched by Seattle law enforcement (@getyourcarback) ...

Police in Rotterdam have begun installing new, high-tech security systems in stores across the Dutch city, in an effort to help local businesses combat theft in particularly crime-plagued neighborhoods. Unlike most security systems, though, Rotterdam's new device doesn't feature any high-pitched alarms or flashing lights. All it does is spray synthetic DNA. As the New York Times explains, the ...

Twenty-year-old Yasir Afifi took his car to the mechanic last week for an oil change, and wound up a minor Internet celebrity. When the California resident's Lincoln was raised on the car lifts Afifi and his mechanic, Mazher Khan, noticed something strange, with an antenna, near the car's exhaust. Afifi and his friend posted images of the device on Reddit, wondering if it was an FBI tracking ...

A major data system used to keep track of sex offenders shut down Tuesday morning, after unexpectedly reaching its storage limit. The blackout, which lasted about 12 hours, prevented law enforcement authorities in 49 states from keeping track of some 16,000 sex offenders, parolees and other marked citizens. Although tracking devices continued to record movements of known offenders, authorities at ...

Police in the U.K. are heralding a new forensic technique that's already garnering attention from U.S. law enforcement agencies like the FBI. The technique, known as electrical network frequency analysis, or ENF, allows investigators to identify variations in demand across a power grid, as well as the fluctuations caused by those demands in nearby recording devices. Comparing the two sets of data, ...

As part of an overarching movement to overhaul the legal protocol that dictates online investigations, police forces are now pushing for the creation of a new national law enforcement Web interface. The hope is to streamline the procedure by which police can seize personal data of suspected cyber criminals. The proposed system would provide police with a direct link to e-mail and Internet ...

Despite its wares being billed as "non-lethal," we'd rather not find ourselves on the business end of a product from Taser International, which designs weapons that use a strong dose of electricity to incapacitate people. After learning about the company's latest venture, we don't think we'll change our minds any time soon, either. According to New Scientist, Taser is set to deliver prototypes of ...

Imagine if just by getting a driver's license, you were entering yourself into an unofficial, virtual lineup that police would scour for suspects. Well, if you live in North Carolina, that scenario is already reality. Created by the FBI, a current test program uses facial recognition technology to compare photos of suspects with the state's drivers' license database. According to USA Today, the ...

After Detective Omar Edwards was shot and killed by friendly fire while in plain clothes on May 28th, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly began seeking a way for firearms to communicate with one another in order to stop accidents like this from happening again. According to FOX News, the NYPD has initiated preliminary discussions about such devices with the Pacific Northwest National ...

In the Netherlands, the sale of marijuana is legal, albeit restricted, but the nation is still engaged in a cannabis drug war. According to Dvice, 90-percent of the marijuana grown on local Dutch farms is sold illegally through smugglers and foreign drug traffickers. To help combat the unsanctioned reefer madness, Dutch police have added a new unmanned helicopter, dubbed the 'Canna Chopper,' ...

If the New York Police Department had a dollar for every attempted hack on its computer system, New York cops would be driving around in Ferraris instead of those horrid Crown Victorias (or Impalas). In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that hackers try to breach the NYPD's computer system at least 70,000 times a day, according to the ...

Twitter has not yet ceased to amaze us. A growing number of law enforcement agencies have taken to the 140-character tweet to aid in serving and protecting their citizens, according to an AP report. The Milwaukee Police Department has been tweeting about homicide suspects, community improvements, robbery surveillance footage on their YouTube channel, gang arrests, missing persons, Milwaukee's ...

You know that using a cell phone while driving in New York state is illegal, right? Unless you're using a hands-free kit, it is. Since the law passed, most police officers have been rather lenient in issuing tickets, generally only giving them out when someone is pulled over for another offense -- like speeding or poor driving. Last Thursday, however, police in New York City decided it was time ...

The U.K. police are testing out some new equipment that will have bad guys across the Atlantic asking, "Where do they get all those wonderful toys?" Certain counties in the British Isles are testing out a new device to replace the Stinger system of road spikes used to disable vehicles in police chases. The X-Net is a super-strong net laced with rows of small spikes used by the U.S. military to ...

Just to be clear, police in Japan are not searching for a video game character. They created a Mii -- the custom avatars players can create with their Nintendo Wiis -- to go along with a wanted poster for a very real hit and run. Cops in the Kanagawa prefecture, an area near Tokyo, have put the custom Wii caricature on wanted posters that also feature a picture of the type of car used in the ...