Private Prisons: Profits of Crime
from Mathaba.net
At Leavenworth, Kan., within a perimeter of razor wire, armed prison guards in uniform supervise hundreds of medium- and maximum-security federal prisoners. Welcome to one of America's growth industries- private sector, for-profit prisons. Here in the shadow of the federally-run Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks and the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) runs a short-term detention facility for medium- and maximum-security prisoners. More

Lottery-winning Deputies in California Donate to Fallen Officers
from the San Francisco Chronicle
Two cohabiting Marin County, Calif., sheriff's deputies are sporting ear-to-ear grins because they're California's newest multimillionaires. Brian Cabaud, 31, and 24-year-old Anneliese Hansen, said they plan to donate money to the families of the four Oakland police officers who were shot and killed by a parolee on March 21. More

Palm Beach County, Fla., Sheriff's Deputy Wins TOP COPS Award
from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
It started off as a quiet morning. Then Deputy William Badala got a disturbance call. Next: a shootout between him and a man toting an assault rifle and handgun. And with those shots — that ended in the gunman's arrest — Badala won the national TOP COPS Award this year. He is the first winner from Palm Beach County, Fla. More

from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
They can spot the smile on a smuggler's face from 10,000 feet in the air; record real-time, full-color video of his run for shore; and simultaneously track 5,000 ships spread over a 193-mile swath of ocean. Flying high above the Atlantic Ocean about halfway between Florida and the Bahamas, the latest addition to the government's anti-smuggling arsenal can track the trajectory of a boat leaving Cuba and compare it — in seconds — to every filed course plan for vessels on the water. More

Police Traffic Deaths are Up, and the Question is, Why?
from the Buffalo News
With an increased number of police officers dying in traffic accidents —an estimated 71 nationally last year — Western New York law enforcement drew attention to that fact Monday on Police Appreciation Day. “Over half the officers killed were in traffic accidents,” acting U. S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter said during an interfaith police memorial service in St. Joseph’s Cathedral in downtown Buffalo, N.Y.. More

Technology on Horizon to Prevent Officers from being Dragged
from The Dallas Morning News via TXCN
It's one of the most dangerous scenarios for a law enforcement officer: approaching a driver sitting in an idling vehicle. Policing experts say they've not found any surefire way to protect officers from injury or death in these tense situations. But on the horizon is technology that will someday allow officers to use an electromagnetic pulse to fry a vehicle's electronics, killing the engine before draggings can occur. More

Feds Ready to Build Virtual Fence Along Border
from The Associated Press via CBS News
Federal officials plan to start construction within weeks on a new "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border that they say could almost completely cover the nearly 2,000-mile frontier within five years. The first permanent towers holding sensors, cameras and communications gear to detect drug smugglers and illegal immigrants will be built along 53 miles of Arizona's border with Mexico, said Mark Borkowski, a Customs and Border Protection official in charge of the program. More

Wisconsin Law Enforcement Learn What It’s Like to be Mentally Ill
from The Journal Times
"Turn your voices on," Racine Police Officer Chris Cronin told two fellow officers at a special police training last week. She was referring to MP3 players that simulated the experience of hearing voices, which is a symptom of schizophrenia. It was part of the Racine County, Wis., first weeklong Crisis Intervention Team training, which is training for a core group of officers from across the county to recognize people with mental illnesses and help prevent those people from ending up in the hospital or jail. More

Thermal Imager May Reveal a Lie
from The Associated Press via the Seattle Times
Coming one day to a government checkpoint near you: a thermal imager that just might tip off a guard to a liar. The research arm of the Defense Intelligence Agency has been working since 2000 on a camera that measures minute changes in facial skin temperature. Those fluctuations- involuntary and undetectable even to the owner of the face - indicate a stress response. More

Device Alerts Drivers to Red-light Camera Locations
from the Chicago Sun Times
Build a better mousetrap, and mice will look for new ways not to get caught. Responding to the proliferation of red-light cameras nationwide, Cobra Electronics has launched a new line of radar detectors with a regularly updated database of red light and speed cameras. More