Public Safety Technology in the News

Sheriff Unveils New Iris Recognition Technology
The Enterprise/CapeNews.net, (12/04/2009), Michael C. Bailey
Through a grant from the National Sheriffs Association, Barnstable and Plymouth counties and the Brockton Police Department, Mass., can now use iris biometrics to catalog inmates, identify suspects and identify missing persons. The iris biometrics system takes high-resolution pictures of the eyes, which are then entered into national inmate, sex offender, child safety and senior safety databases. To identify suspects or missing persons, police officers need only to use the system again to instantly match their irises with those of catalogued inmates, sex offenders, children or senior citizens. According to Joseph D. McDonald, Plymouth County sheriff, the iris is he most biometric feature that visible on the human body. Iris scans are much more reliable than fingerprint scans, which can be obscured or otherwise unusable.
www.capenews.net/communities/region/news/109

Tasers Protect Police and Save Suspects: Study
Reuters Health via ABCNews.com, (12/04/200), Ford Vox, MD
Police departments that begin using less-lethal technologies such as Tasers rather than physical force to apprehend suspects can expect to see rates of injury drop dramatically, according to a new federally backed analysis. A common criticism of Tasers is that police officers use them in situations that don’t merit the use of physical force, thereby increasing the number of injuries sustained. According to John MacDonald, however, a criminologist at the University of Pennsylvania who led the study, If you just do a simple comparison between cases where they use a less lethal weapon and those where they don’t, you get the impression that the weapon causes injury, but police usually resort to Tasers and pepper spray in more dangerous situations where injuries are more likely to occur.
abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=9252499

New Drone to Scour U.S. Coast for Smugglers
Reuters, (12/07/2009)
The new drone, an adapted and unarmed version of the drones flown in Iraq and Afghanistan, will join a fleet of five Predator B drones already patrolling U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. This maritime drone will patrol the Caribbean, Pacific and Gulf coasts for drug smugglers. According to customs spokesman Juan Munoz-Torres, The aircraft . . . gives us the ability to go after the drug traffickers in transit and source zones.
www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B708I20091208

Napolitano Unveils Fiscal 2010 DHS Grants
HS Today, (12/09/2009), Mickey McCarter
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will award more than $2.7 billion in funding for 13 grant programs in FY 2010. The grant programs focus on emergency preparedness, covering issues such as law enforcement activities in border states; mass casualty incident response; community preparedness; mitigation of terrorist attacks; protection of critical infrastructure and transportation; strengthening of all-hazards emergency management; improvement of interoperable communications; construction or renovation of state, local and tribal emergency operations centers; and security enhancement of driver’s licenses. Guidance kits are available online at http://www.fema.gov/grants. Application deadlines range from January 22 to April 19, 2010, depending on the grant program.
www.hstoday.us/content/view/11384/128/

Pushes to End Cop Code
Journal-Courier, (12/08/2009)
A new push is underway to require police officers to use plain language rather than the 10 codes they currently use to communicate with one another and dispatchers. The Federal Emergency Management Administration and, more recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) want to make this change in large part because of the lack of a universal code. In many cases, the meaning behind the codes and the number of codes used differ by agency. Problems with the 10 code system are often exacerbated during major disasters, such as September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, when multiple agencies from different locations respond. Some law enforcement officials, however, believe the codes to be useful. According to Morgan County Sheriff Randy Duvendack, some things seem to come out quicker using the codes rather than plain English. Chris Essid, director of the Office of Emergency Communications for DHS, acknowledges that culture change is never easy.
ww.myjournalcourier.com/news/made-24742-abandoning-push.html

Officials Approve 911 Software Upgrade
The Star Press, (12/10/2009), Rick Yencer
Hoping to improve communication, access and accuracy of information for emergency personnel, Delaware County, Ind., has begun a $1.28 million software upgrade of its computer-aided dispatch. The new system, which should be available for use in 2010, replaces an outdated system that doesn’t map emergency calls or integrate with other systems and uses outdated software. According to Todd Donati, president of the Delaware County commissioners, dispatchers use post-it notes to report road and bridge closings because the current system doesn’t take such entries. The new system will be seamless, Donati said about the changeover.
www.thestarpress.com/article/20091210/NEWS01/912100332/1002/Officials-approve-911-softward-upgrade

Secretary Napolitano Unveils Virtual USA Information-Sharing Initiative
Department of Homeland Security, (12/09/2009)
To help federal, state, local and tribal first responders communicate with each other during emergencies, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched Virtual USA. The initiative helps first responders share the location and status of critical assets and information such as power and water lines, flood detectors, helicopter landing sites, emergency vehicle and ambulance locations, weather and traffic conditions, evacuation routes and school and government building floor plans. Our first responders need interoperable tools to make accurate and timely decisions during emergencies, said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Virtual USA makes it possible for new and existing technologies to work together seamlessly during disaster response and recovery and gives the public an opportunity to contribute information in real-time to support the efforts of police officers, firefighters and other emergency management officials.
www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1260375414161.shtm

FBI: 19,000 Matches to Terrorist Screening List in 2009
Wired.com, (12/09/2009), Kim Zetter
Testifying in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, the FBIs Timothy Healy, director of the Terrorist Screening Center, stated that law enforcement officials reported 55,000 encounters with suspected terrorists in the last year. Of these encounters, 19,000 were with individuals on the terrorist watchlist. (Some of the 19,000 matches included multiple encounters with the same individuals.) The watchlist, which includes approximately 400,000 individuals, is used to screen visa applicants, gun buyers and suspects stopped by police and to stop some air travelers for extra screening or interrogation.
www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/terrorist-watchlist

Prison Population Up, Despite Drop in 20 States
According to U.S. Department of Justice figures, 1.7 million people are in U.S. state and federal prisons, and the number is rising. However, the increase is slower than in the past: last year, the prison population grew less than 1 percent; in the 1990s, the average annual growth rate was 6 percent. In addition, the total number of inmates in 20 states has dropped. According to Ram Cnaan, a professor at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, the slowing growth rate and population drop is due to the cost of prisons: They simply cost too much. This is the first time that we have alliances on the right and left on this issue, and its the money that has forced the issue.
www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09prison.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=%22prisons%22&st=cse