2023

French fries

Busted July 13, 2023

BUSTED! Real Stories of Genuine Absurdity July/August 2023

James L. McClinton Would you like fries with that?… A Canadian man recently opened “The Drugs Store,” a mobile shop, in Vancouver. The man, who sold heroin, meth, cocaine, and ecstasy, was arrested for drug trafficking less than 24 hours after launching the business. He said he wanted to give people a safe supply of drugs which have been tested to ensure they didn’t contain fentanyl. Police said they started gathering evidence “after the suspect started selling cocaine, crack, methamphetamine,…

Three police officers wearing body armor.

Equipment & Apparel July 11, 2023

Best Body Armor Practices

Matt Craig Law enforcement is a recognizably dangerous profession, with a fatality rate five times higher than the average US worker.  To help mitigate these occupational risks, most law enforcement agencies have mandatory policies in place for wearing personal protective equipment, such as soft armor vests, hard armor plates and ballistic helmets. The use of body armor has saved the lives of more than 3,000 officers in the last three decades, according to the National Institute of Justice. If officers…

Black and white photo of female officer using an old computer.

....and nothing but the truth July 10, 2023

…AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH July/August 2023

Ramesh Nyberg The Criminal Justice Revolution – Were You There? Perhaps the more appropriate title for this column should be, “Will You Be There?” because there is sure to be another one. The revolution I’m talking about occurred in the mid to late 1980s and is marked by sudden growth in the fields of forensics and computer technology. I’m lucky enough to have worked in law enforcement before this explosion and the reason I want to write about it in…

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News June 14, 2023

Tools for States to Address Crime

Published by The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, these tools help provide state leaders with a plan to advance safety and justice. To equip state leaders, the CSG Justice Center has analyzed the most recent 50-state data on crime, arrests, and prison populations and has developed a list of ten ways states can lower crime.  View these tools.

Weaponry June 13, 2023

Why Your Shoulder Weapon Needs a Light

Mike Boyle The concept of mounting a light to a firearm is nothing new and this practice has been around since World War I. However, lights which were designed for pistols may not work as well when attached to patrol rifles. In the 1960s, High Standard marketed the Model 10 shotgun to law enforcement agencies, a self-loading bullpup design which came complete with an integral light. Fast-forward 30 years and there was considerable interest from the police community on tactical…

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News June 13, 2023

Understanding How GPT Is Changing Law Enforcement

Published by Europol, this report analyzes a number of workshops held by subject matter experts on the positive and negative potential of ChatGPT. The report emphasizes that law enforcement must be prepared for the negative impacts of this artificial intelligence system. Although OpenAI has included many safeguards on ChatGPT to prevent malicious use, they can be easily bypassed through prompt engineering. An unprecedented amount of available data is used by criminals to learn about topics such as potential crime areas,…

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News June 13, 2023

Prevention Resource Finder Tool

Published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), this online tool provides stakeholders with information on the resources needed to help prepare for and prevent targeted violence and terrorism across our country. Within each of the categories, users can search keywords for relevant resources and filter the results based on Department/Agency/Organization and Key Audience. This online tool can be found here.

The Wheels of Justice June 10, 2023

THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE May/June 2023

Sergeant James Post Unplugging the Controversy about EVs We’ve talked about EVs several times before in these pages, but the discussions (pro and con) continue unabated. Here are the latest developments in this debate, as well as vehicle news from around the country – new vehicles purchased, recalls and more.  But, first, here’s a real-world EV experience from a Midwestern state trooper who has requested to remain anonymous. “I was sent to a motorist assist at the start of a…

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News June 8, 2023

Internet Crime Report 2022

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released its new report on Internet crime in 2022. The growth of cybercrime is a threat to networks, critical infrastructure and financial institutions in the United States and around the world. These threats produce major economic and national security effects. The FBI commits to assisting the victims of cybercrimes and working to combat these crimes. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), established in May 2000, serves as a public resource to report…

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News June 7, 2023

Global Terrorism Index (GTI) Report 2023

The Institute for Economics and Peace has released the tenth edition of the GTI report. The GTI represents a comprehensive study analyzing the impact of terrorism on 163 countries which covers 99.7 percent of the world’s population. For its analysis, the GTI uses the TerrorismTracker database which records “every terrorist incident reported in open sources since January 2007.” Using this data, the GTI creates a terrorism impact score on a scale of 0 to 10 for every country in the…