Articles

DNA Phenotyping Shows Results

Kathy Marks One of the benefits of this technology is a significant reduction of the suspect pool which can save time, money and manpower. Simply stated, DNA phenotyping predicts the physical appearance of an unknown person from their DNA. This technology helps to generate investigative leads; narrows the suspect list or assists when there are no suspects or database hits; and assists with mass casualty situations and identifying unknown remains. Companies committing resources to developing this technology utilize a number of…


Data Mining in Law Enforcement

Bill Siuru, Ph.D., PE As every investigator knows, intelligence is a key to preventing and solving crimes. Acquiring intelligence often involves time intensive analysis of the thousands of incident reports; crime tips; and other, often seemingly unrelated, pieces of data. Terrorism has compounded the volume of intelligence data to be analyzed and made it even more critical to do it in a timely manner. How do you rapidly and systematically analyze a vast amount of data to produce useful intelligence…


Anatomy of a Ransomware Attack

Dr. Stephenie Slahor The disruption to individual and departmental computer systems via ransomware is presenting new challenges to law enforcement agencies throughout the country. A recent NBC news report disclosed how Eastern European hackers have been exposing law enforcement agencies nationwide to “ransomware” virus attacks – seizing control of various systems and deleting numerous files and/or denying access to records and other information. According to this report, police departments in seven states have experienced these types of attacks over the…


Brass and Blood: Fighting and Fixing with Advanced Field Survival Procedures

  Jim Weiss, P.J. Ryan and Mickey Davis This jointly taught combat casualty course stresses that officers should possess the ability to press home the fight and render aggressive patient care, not only to themselves, but also to others who may have been injured. Law Enforcement (LE) trainers previously taught that, if a police officer’s hand or arm was injured in a gunfight, he /she was to put that arm/hand behind his/her back and continue the combat course with the…


Body Armor Update: 2017

The 24th Annual Report on the Latest Advances in Ballistic Armor Technology and Design Rebecca Waters “I was very lucky, actually. We had a traffic stop…and I initially thought the guy was in need of medical attention. He had blood on his face, he was drooling, vomiting, and I kind of looked over the car a little bit and said, ‘Hey, are you okay?’…. He had a .45 right under his leg…he pulled it out and shot me once in…


Law Enforcement Leadership July August 2017

Michael Carpenter Managing Use-of-Force Incidents: Before and After The nature of police work virtually guarantees that officers will become involved in confrontational situations and that they will have to use force at some point. As a supervisor, you probably won’t be at the scene when it happens. Yet, even before a physical altercation (or an allegation of use of force) between a citizen and one of your officers takes place, you may have already contributed a great deal to the…


Busted! – Real Stories of Genuine Absurdity July/August 2017

James L. McClinton, Ph.D Odds are this guy was just trying to pass the buck… In Massachusetts, a man who contested a speeding ticket in court gave the judge a unique explanation – the officer’s radar gun may have picked up a deer. The Haverhill man was clocked going 40 mph in a 30 mph zone in West Newbury and was given a $105 ticket. He appealed in court, asking the officer if he was 100% sure his radar gun…


…AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

Ramesh Nyberg Underage Girls and Marriage (No, Not in Yemen or Libya…HERE) There are a ton of issues to choose from which I could write about so, before we continue, let me give you this gentle disclaimer: The many law enforcement issues I could (and maybe should) be writing about here are just too much of an emotional tornado for me, so I’ve chosen another topic. Not to worry, I’ll go back to tackling the obvious stuff which makes all…


NRA Foundation Launches Cars For Freedom: Back Our Blue, A New Initiative To Support America’s Law Enforcement

The NRA Foundation is proud to announce the next phase of its Cars For Freedom initiative: NRA Cars For Freedom: Back Our Blue. The nationwide campaign asks supporters to stand with the NRA in support of America’s law enforcement, by donating cars, boats, tractors and other vehicles to the initiative. Donations are tax deductible and will be used to bolster the NRA Foundation’s Law Enforcement program, which provides training, supplies and other benefits to our nation’s law enforcement officers. Those…


“Understanding Digital Footprints: Steps to Protect Personal Information”

“Understanding Digital Footprints: Steps to Protect Personal Information” provides material designed to assist law enforcement personnel in protecting themselves and their families from becoming cyber targets: protecting personal information; cyber dos and don’ts; and links to further cyber training and resources. To view the full document, visit http://tinyurl.com/m4acwvg. Additional cyber-related resources are available on the Law Enforcement Cyber Center Web site at www.iacpcybercenter.org.