law enforcement

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Nation of Cops Attends Oakland Officers' Funeral

(Newser) - Law enforcement officers from across the country descended on Oakland today for the funerals of four cops gunned down by a fugitive last weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. All 815 members of the Oakland force attended while officers from other jurisdictions patrolled the streets in their stead. An overflow...

Push to Boost Diversity Backfires on FBI

Whoops—bureau's website features fired whistleblower agent

(Newser) - Luckily for the FBI, photos can't talk. The bureau's website promotes its American Indian/Alaskan Native diversity program with a picture of an agent who says she was fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle about racial insensitivity, "In the Loop" columnist Al Kamen reports for the Washington Post....

FBI Rescues Teen Hookers Across US

(Newser) - The FBI rounded up 48 suspected teen prostitutes and arrested 571 others on a range of prostitution charges this weekend, the AP reports. The nationwide offensive, Operation Cross Country, rescued girls as young as 13 years old. "The goal is to recover kids," one FBI official said. "...

Crime Labs Employ Shoddy Science: Report

Experts will call for independent agency to oversee forensics

(Newser) - The country's crime labs are seriously deficient, according to a new report that's expected to shake up the field of forensics, the New York Times reports. Evidence portrayed as incontrovertible is often far from it, says the report, which Congress commissioned from the National Academy of Sciences. Forensic analysis often...

Mass. Cops Refuse to Ticket Pot Smokers

Police call new, softer marijuana law 'unenforceable'

(Newser) - Now that marijuana is decriminalized in Massachusetts, many cops say they won’t even bother issuing tickets to pot smokers, the Boston Globe reports. “We’re just basically not enforcing it right now,” said the chief of police in one Central Massachusetts town. Officers “probably handled a...

Brazil Finds Drunk-Driving Law Tough to Swallow

Home of carnival balks at cultural shift; corruption, lack of funds also hinder effort

(Newser) - Brazilians have mixed feelings about recently adopted drunken-driving laws that threaten to undermine their carnival lifestyle. The 0.02% alcohol limit—much stricter than America’s 0.08%—aims to curb the 35,000 deaths that occur on Brazil’s roads annually. But with just 900 breathalyzers for a nation...

Army Unit to Handle Threats on US Soil

Deployment sparks concern that military is taking police role

(Newser) - 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...

Cox Has Neutered SEC's Watchdog Role
Cox Has Neutered SEC's Watchdog Role
ANALYSIS
Sep 17, 2008 4:37 PM CDT

Cox Has Neutered SEC's Watchdog Role

Critics say agency has gotten soft, especially against big business

(Newser) - 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,...

Construction Theft Is Building Concern

$5B in annual losses drive home prices up by as much as 10%

(Newser) - 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...

Turtle Assists in Pot Bust
 Turtle Assists in Pot Bust 
Aug 1, 2008 1:19 PM CDT

Turtle Assists in Pot Bust

Radio monitoring leads officials to marijuana patch

(Newser) - 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...

Illegal Search Rule Faces New Challenge

US is the only country to automatically reject unlawful evidence

(Newser) - 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...

DNA Used to Nab Criminal Kin
 DNA Used to Nab Criminal Kin 
Apr 21, 2008 12:51 PM CDT

DNA Used to Nab Criminal Kin

But questions arise over genetic privacy of innocent relatives

(Newser) - 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...

Colleges Apply Lessons From Shootings
Colleges Apply Lessons From Shootings
Mar 29, 2008 11:00 AM CDT

Colleges Apply Lessons From Shootings

Many rethink privacy concerns as they assess risky students

(Newser) - 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...

How Bad's Your Neighborhood? Find Out Online

New website maps out police data for the public

(Newser) - 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...

Cops Closing Doors on Cold Cases
Cops Closing Doors on
Cold Cases
Feb 3, 2008 11:15 AM CST

Cops Closing Doors on Cold Cases

Funding to crack unsolved mysteries declined 40% in '07

(Newser) - 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...

FBI Plans Huge Biometric Index
FBI Plans Huge Biometric Index
Dec 22, 2007 12:29 PM CST

FBI Plans Huge Biometric Index

On project 'Next Generation Identification'

(Newser) - 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...

Judge: Cops Can't Force Defendant to Tell Password

An accused child pornographer has the right to keep his laptop password, and images, private

(Newser) - 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...

DHS Delays Domestic Spy Sat Plans
DHS Delays Domestic
Spy Sat Plans
Oct 2, 2007 6:45 PM CDT

DHS Delays Domestic Spy Sat Plans

House forces privacy review before local cops can get photos

(Newser) - 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.

Revisiting Rudy's Record as Terror-Fighter

Impressive after 9/11, Giuliani underplayed the threat before

(Newser) - 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 attacks, the Post notes decisions that...

Publicity-Hound Pedophile May Walk Free

Constitutional issues frustrate moves by Calif. law enforcement

(Newser) - 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...

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