by James Mills
When law enforcement wants to screen a person for drug use, they usually must collect some kind of invasive physical sample from the suspect. Urine, blood, and hair are all common choices. Now drug use may soon be detectable from fingerprints alone.
For years, Min Jang, an ...
by James Mills
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has developed a powerful surveillance tool that allows analysts to extract metadata from hundreds of websites, apps, and platforms, enabling the agency to gather detailed information on individuals, likely to aid in arrests, deportations, and visa enforcement.
ICE’s stated mission is ...
by James Mills
Footage from police body cameras could soon become a pricey commodity in Ohio. Ohio has joined Arizona and Indiana on the short list of states that allow police departments to charge citizens, lawyers, journalists, and activists to access bodycam footage.
In Arizona, the charge is limited to ...
by James Mills
Artificial intelligence has exceeded human capabilities in yet another area.
AI has surpassed human forensic experts in determining biological sex from skeletal remains. Forensic anthropologists traditionally analyze human skeletons to estimate age, lifestyle, and sex—key information for criminal investigations, identifying remains, archaeology, and paleoanthropology. Now, a team ...
by James Mills
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has announced a new rule that lowers the currency transaction report (“CTR”) limit to $200 for certain counties along the Southwest border of the U.S.
The normal threshold to generate a CTR is $10,000. Money ...
by James Mills
The NYPD now has Drone First Responders (“DFRs”) and has begun deploying them in response to 911 calls. On Nov. 13, 2024, the Mayor’s office announced the new program: 10 drones, deployed across three boroughs—Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan—remotely dispatched to fly autonomously to the exact longitude ...
by James Mills
More than 135 years after a series of gruesome murders terrorized London, new DNA evidence has emerged that may lend credence to long-held suspicions about one of the original suspects. The infamous “Jack the Ripper” killings, a string of brutal murders in the late 19th century, remain ...
by James Mills
President Donald J. Trump recently announced the appointment of Alice Johnson, a formerly incarcerated woman whose sentence he had commuted, as his senior adviser on pardons, a role he dubbed “pardon czar.” The announcement was made during a Black History Month reception at the White House, held ...
by James Mills
alifornia law enforcement agencies violated rules governing access to criminal justice databases 7,275 times in 2023, according to records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF”). These violations highlight systemic issues in the oversight of sensitive data systems, raising concerns about privacy and accountability.
California imposes ...
by James Mills
Did you know the federal government has the ability to access a virtually unlimited range of computers—including laptops, workstations, and library terminals—if it so desires?
This revelation comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) announced in a January press release that it had removed malware from ...
