Public Safety Technology in the News

Takoma Park Police Start Text Message Tip System
The Examiner, 02/10/2010, Freeman Klopott
Police in Takoma Park, Md., have a new tool for gathering information from citizens. The text messaging system, called Tip411, receives anonymous tips from cell phones. The system allows citizens with a cell phone to send an anonymous tip to the police department by typing in the number 847411 and typing the word TPPDTIP before the message. The tips are 100 percent anonymous. The company that runs the system’s technology removes all identifying information before forwarding the tip to police. Police Chief Ronald Ricucci notes that the tips are for nonemergency use and that residents should still call 911 in an emergency. He says the anonymous tip system allows residents to come forward with information without fear of retribution.
www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Takoma-Park-police-start-text-message-tip-system-83907337.html

Lawmaker Suggests Moving Forensic Tests
The Register-Herald, (02/08/2010), Mannix Porterfield
A West Virginia lawmaker is recommending that responsibility for forensics laboratory work be shifted from the state police to universities. State Sen. Bill Laird asked a legislative committee to study the effectiveness of forensic services, citing concerns about jail overcrowding. Laird’s resolution to the committee says prison crowding could be blamed in part on pretrial delays stemming from a backlog in processing criminal evidence. State police have been handling forensics lab duties in the state since 1935. Laird pointed to a national movement to shift forensic laboratory services to a more independent location. He cited the growth in forensics services at Marshall University, West Virginia University and Mount State University in the state, which could offer expanded forensic capabilities.
www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_039225347.html

Sheriff Partners With Douglas County Schools to be SchoolSAFE
PRWeb, (02/09/2010)
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado has begun using SchoolSAFE, a communications tool to improve coordination between first responders and schools during a school emergency. The system bridges all radio systems, allowing for a more coordinated and quicker response. When activated, the Web-based SchoolSAFE allows local responders, participating schools and school security dispatch to talk directly to each other using the radios they use every day, allowing instant communication in the event of a natural disaster or school violence. Currently, 15 Douglas County high schools and middle schools are protected with the system. Sheriff David Weaver is seeking funding from other sources to extend the protection to all Douglas County school facilities, including private schools. The $247,500 program was funded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Public Safety Interoperable Communications program. The program will bring Douglas County schools in complianc! e with the Colorado Safe School Act, which requires schools to partner with local responders to improve crisis response.
www.prweb.com/releases/schoolsafe/communications/prweb3582984.htm

Warren County to Spend $1.25 Million Federal Grant on Police Radio Upgrades
The Express Times, (02/09/2010), Bill Wichert
A New Jersey county will use a $1.25 million federal grant to improve emergency communications. Warren County will use the money to buy new handheld and car radios for all 10 police departments in the county. The Community Oriented Policing Services grant will allow the county to purchase the radios in the next two years. The new radios include an “officer down” button and an identification feature that allows 911 dispatchers to immediately know which radio is communicating with them. Additional plans to improve emergency communications include refining channels for fire and rescue squads and establishing a communications tower in Allamuchy Township.
www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1265691943181730.xml&coll=3

Royal Palm Pulls Back on Fines From Red-Light Cameras
Palm Beach Post, (02/09/2010), Charles Elmore
The village of Royal Palm Beach, Fla., has delayed issuing fines for red-light camera infractions, saying the evidence doesn’t add up. Village engineer Ray Liggins said financial penalties will be put off indefinitely after police concluded that more than 90 percent of the evidence sent for their review during a warning period did not deserve a $125 ticket. Lt. David Combs of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, who helped review the evidence, estimated that 5 to 10 percent of the more than 14,000 “events” sent for police review since Nov. 8 would have been approved for fines. Cameras are based at two Royal Palm Beach Boulevard intersections. Liggins said drivers have expressed a lack of confidence in the technology. Village officials stopped trying to capture right-turn violations during a 90-day warning period, focusing on straight-through or left-turn cases, but still want to see what happens with court challenges and bills state lawmakers may consider this spring. www.palmbeachpost.com/news/traffic/royal-palm-pulls-back-on-fines-from-red-224021.html

Texas Prisons Part of Budget Cutting
Associated Press, (02/11/2010)
Texas officials are considering closing some prisons in a cost-cutting move. To bridge a projected state budget shortfall of $10 billion, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus asked all state agencies to offer proposals cutting 5 percent of their budgets. The Austin American-Statesman reported that Texas prison officials are seeking as much as $300 million in cutbacks in the 112-unit prison system. Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has said that any budget reductions would not compromise public safety or agency operations. The number of inmates has been decreasing in the state. The adult prison system currently has about 2,300 vacant beds. The Texas youth prison system, which five years ago housed almost 5,000 offenders, now holds fewer than 1,700.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6861899.html

Germs on Run From Sure-Handed Cops
Fox News, (02/15/2010)
The New York Police Department is distributing mobile hand sanitizers to its officers to keep germs at bay. The optional equipment clips to the belts of beat officers and school safety officers. The department advises officers to use care not to hook the sanitizers onto their firearm trigger guards, radio antennas and expandable batons. Hand sanitizers are used to protect against the flu and other viruses and bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 80 percent of infections are spread through hand contact.
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585924,00.html

Bill Helps Md. Schools, Police Share More Gang Information
The Washington Post, (02/16/2010), Aaron C. Davis and Michael Birnbaum
A bill introduced in the Maryland legislature would allow police, school principals and prosecutors to share confidential information about students suspected of gang activity. Current state privacy laws prevent police and school officials from sharing all information about gangs in classrooms. Civil liberties groups are concerned the bill might distribute too much information about students. The bill introduced by House Speaker Michael E. Busch would require courts to share with schools information on students deemed delinquent and those committed to the custody or guardianship of the state’s Department of Juvenile Services. Courts currently have discretion to report a much more limited range of issues to schools. In addition, the bill would require teachers to report suspected gang activity to school administrators or a school security officer, who would coordinate anti-gang efforts.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021503363.html

UCLA Professors Awarded Major Federal Grant to Study Error Rates in Fingerprint Evidence
UCLA Newsroom, (02/11/2010), Lauri Gavel
UCLA has been awarded a $866,764 federal grant to study error rates in latent fingerprint evidence. The grant from the National Institute of Justice is in response to a report issued by the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 that concluded the accuracy and reliability of many forensic methods, including fingerprints, had not been adequately established through scientific scrutiny. The UCLA study will establish a scientific method to quantify the accuracy and error rates of latent fingerprint examination. The project began Jan. 1, 2010, and is slated to end in the summer of 2012. It will have four phases: 1) a fingerprint database will be created; 2) methods to quantify the visual complexity of fingerprints and comparisons will be examined and developed; 3) a cognitive-difficulty analysis will be combined with a visual-complexity analysis to establish and test a difficulty classification scheme for fingerprint comparisons; and 4) the potential for error for each difficul! ty classification level in the hierarchy will be determined.
www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/two-ucla-professors-awarded-national-153642.aspx

UPDATE 1-US Govt Appeals Court Ban on Cell Phone Tracking
Reuters, (02/12/2010), John Hurdle
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia recently heard arguments on why the U.S. government should be allowed access to citizens’ cell phone records. A Justice Department attorney urged the court to overturn lower court rulings denying it the right seek information from communications companies about call activity on specific phone numbers that law enforcement believe are associated with criminal activity. The government does not want to monitor the content of cell phone conversations. Civil rights attorneys argued that providing information such as dates, times, call duration and which cell phone tower was used to make the call would be an invasion of privacy and a violation of constitutional protections against unjustified arrest. Attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology said the government should have to obtain a warrant to track an individual via a cell phone and show probable cause that the information would provide! evidence of a crime. In 2008, the government asked for court permission to use cell phones for tracking without showing probable cause. The request was denied by a magistrate judge, whose decision was upheld by a district court. The government is appealing the lower court decisions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1215088420100212