Deployment sparks concern that military is taking police role
CNN Oct 4, 08 6:41 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A new US Army combat unit will focus on domestic threats like terrorist attacks and natural disasters, raising questions about the role of the military on American soil, CNN reports. The mission is a new assignment for a combat team that was the first to enter Baghdad in 2003. Based in Georgia, the unit will concentrate on logistics and backing local police.
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ANALYSIS
Critics say agency has gotten soft, especially against big business
Portfolio Sep 17, 08 4:37 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Under chairman Christopher Cox, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has drastically reduced the power of its enforcement division, Portfolio reports. Cox was brought in to “chill it out” after his predecessor was perhaps too zealous for White House tastes. Congress chided Cox for essentially turning down more funding, and penalties against offenders last year were a third of those in 2005, when Cox took office.
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$5B in annual losses drive home prices up
by as much as 10%
New York Times Aug 28, 08 9:33 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Increasing theft of building materials from construction sites, especially residential projects, is driving up the cost of homes to consumers as much as 10%, the New York Times reports. Experts say as much as $5 billion a year is being lost to thieves looking to profit from skyrocketing prices for building materials and metal prices.
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Radio monitoring leads officials to marijuana patch
Washington Post Aug 1, 08 1:19 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Agent 99, watch out: A 6-inch-long box turtle known as "No. 72” may want your job. Washington, DC, police recently got an assist from No. 72 in making a drug bust, the Washington Post reports. One of several turtles fitted with transmitters that allow National Park Service researchers to track them, No. 72 happened to receive a visit from a scientist while plodding amid some suspicious plants. "I could tell they were marijuana plants," said Ken Ferebee.
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US is the only country to automatically reject unlawful evidence
New York Times Jul 19, 08 8:16 AM CDT
(Newser)
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America is the only country in the world where evidence—even a carload of narcotics—is automatically suppressed if the police are found to have acted wrongly in acquiring it, writes the New York Times . Courts in other countries weigh the level of police misconduct with the gravity of the crime and the power of the evidence. In the US, the exclusion is absolute, but a change could be coming.
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But questions arise over genetic privacy of innocent relatives
Washington Post Apr 21, 08 12:51 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Law-enforcement agencies are using DNA of family members—often without their consent—to identify and convict criminals, the Washington Post reports. Privacy advocates object that it turns family members into unwitting informants, and subjects innocent relatives to “lifelong genetic surveillance” because someone in their family committed a crime. But investigators say it could increase DNA-solved cases by as much as 40%.
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Many rethink privacy concerns as they assess risky students
Associated Press Mar 29, 08 11:00 AM CDT
(Newser)
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In the wake of shootings on college campuses, administrators around the nation are forming threat-assessment groups and rethinking policies about sharing information on troubled students, the AP reports. "If a student is a danger to himself or others, all the privacy concerns go out the window,” said an administrator at the University of Kentucky, whose panel of administrators, police, and mental health officials meets twice a month.
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New website maps
out police data for
the public
Associated Press Feb 5, 08 5:43 PM CST
(Newser)
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Neighborhood Watch just got a digital upgrade, reports the AP. CrimeReports.com, the brainchild of a suburban DC dweller who accidentally let a burglar into his apartment building, mines police logs for data on crimes and plots them all on Google maps. Users can set up email alerts to keep tabs on criminal happenings going on around them.
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Funding to crack unsolved mysteries declined 40% in '07
USA Today Feb 3, 08 11:15 AM CST
(Newser)
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Amid shrinking budgets and shifts in focus, US police departments are downsizing their cold-case divisions, USA Today reports. Federal funding for the units dropped 40% in 2007, and departments are reducing the hours devoted to long-unsolved cases—and even eliminating the positions entirely. Experts in the field worry that such measures leave murderers to roam free.
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On project 'Next Generation Identification'
Washington Post Dec 22, 07 12:29 PM CST
(Newser)
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The FBI is planning a $1 billion database of “biometric” information—face shapes, iris scans, palm patterns, and even gait patterns—to enhance investigations, the Washington Post reports. Critics fear that the plan, called Next Generation Identification, will further erode individual privacy as the body becomes a de facto identification card: "It's enabling the Always On Surveillance Society,” said an ACLU director.
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An accused child pornographer has the right to keep his laptop password, and images, private
CNET Dec 15, 07 9:51 AM CST
(Newser)
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In what could turn out to be a landmark decision on computer privacy and Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination, a federal judge in Vermont has ruled that a man accused of transporting child pornography across the US border with Canada can’t be forced to turn over his laptop password to prosecutors, reports CNET.
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House forces privacy review before local cops can get photos
InformationWeek Oct 2, 07 6:45 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Amid a privacy hullaballoo in Congress, the Department of Homeland Security has postponed the opening of an office that would share domestic spy satellites images with law enforcement, InformationWeek reports. House committee members overseeing DHS had threatened to block funding until better civil liberties safeguards are in place.
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Impressive after 9/11, Giuliani underplayed the threat before
Washington Post Sep 24, 07 4:25 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Candidate Giuliani is pitching himself as a terrorist-slayer, but until 9/11 he downplayed threats and offered traditional law enforcement as the solution, the Washington Post reports—an approach he now condemns. In an analysis of the former mayor's track record on terror before the attack s, the Post notes decisions that underplayed the threat. i
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Constitutional issues frustrate moves by Calif. law enforcement
Los Angeles Times Aug 15, 07 9:09 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A California man who wrote about his sexual obsession with young girls on his website could soon be out of jail, the LA Times reports. Jack McClellan is incarcerated for violating a restraining order, but its sweeping terms are unlikely to hold up in court, experts say, highlighting the difficulty of dealing with pedophiles who haven't been caught molesting children.
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Upped enforcement promises crisis for some
Christian Science Monitor Aug 14, 07 8:42 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Bush is vowing to enforce old immigration laws after all, now that comprehensive reform has croaked on the Senate floor. He promises to crack down on workers who don't have valid Social Security numbers in particular, but bosses parry that there can be good reasons for numerical snafus with the agency – and huge headaches trying to unwrap its red tape.
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