Mock School Shootings

Since the mid-1990's a couple hundred child have died from the results of a school shooting.  Although the National School Safety Center has released checklist of characteristics common among students who have acted out as a school shooter, there is really no way to know who will become a school shooter and if/when it will happen.  Because of this, there is nothing better than to be prepared for an event that no first responder ever wants to respond to.

October 21st-27th is America's Safe Schools Week according to the National School Safety Center.  Is there a better way to make sure your schools will be safe in the event of a disaster or shooting than to actually practice for it?

Tahoma Junior High School in Ravensdale, Washington takes their drill quite seriously.  The drama club is actively involved, as they are caked in bloody make up and prepared to ensue chaos when the mock-shooting starts.  The drill has other details of school shootings too, such as the exits being chained shut and a gunman on the loose with a gun (an officer and gun with blanks, of course).  The mock gunman fires (blanks) in the hallways and towards classrooms as students and teachers flee to quickly locked classrooms where headcounts of students begin.  Although that might seem like enough, all of the emergency responders get involved as well.  Police and SWAT storm the school, paramedics set up an emergency triage center.  All in all the treat the event like it was actually happening.  This year marked the sixth year of performing this drill.

It might seem like overkill to prepare kids, teachers, and responders to prepare for an event that might never happen, but you'd be surprised what they've learned...and what they are still continuing to learn.  Prominent points are they are realizing the difficulty of reaching the injured stuck behind locked doors or that they're triage location has the ability to quickly come under rifle fire from second story windows.

Watch the video to learn more, and to see if this is something you should think about executing in your neighborhood.

PSM Group: Public Safety Manufacturers

For those that haven't heard of PSM Group before, they are a group of manufacturers with products created specifically for the public safety realm.  This group is comprised Bates Footwear, V.H. Blackinton & Co., Damascus Protective Gear, Gould & Goodrich, Peerless Handcuff Company, Strong Leather Co., and U.S. Armor.  The goal of this grouping is for the companies to work together...which in turn leads to new product ideas, innovation, and reduced costs for their public safety customers!



The PSM Group's website is a great educational tool to learn more about the various products from these companies.  It is also a fantastic place to enter to win some of the various products from these companies.  The PSM Group does a monthly drawing for a prize package of the latest gear from the companies associated with PSM Group.  Each monthly grab bag is valued at over $1,000.  To enter to win, visit the PSM Group's Contest Page.

FI Card Apps

Every officer knows what an FI Card is.  For those readers that are unaware, it's a Field Interview Card.  They are utilized when an officer stops and talks with someone on the street, they may not be under arrest though. It is a generally a notebook sized questionnaire that asks name, DOB, address, school, scars, nicknames, tattoos, gang affiliation, and other questions that enable full description of the person. The information is then usually entered into a data bank.  Information can then be retrieved if there is a crime where a victim alerts offers to a nickname or a tattoo.

With the advances in technology there is no longer a need to carry around the little notebook to do FI's.  There are various smartphone apps that allow you to complete the forms on your phone and even upload them directly to the the database that they are stored in.  Doing this interview on a smart phone also allows the opportunity to include pictures of both the person as well as any distinguishing marks (such as scars or tattoos).

Field Contact is one of the top selling FI Card apps for iPhone.  Field Contact is the most technologically advanced and convenient way to document, photograph, search and email all aspects of your law enforcement contacts directly to your iPhone.  The app can be downloaded from the app store (currently it is $4.99).

There are also similar apps for Android phones, such as Police Field Interview FI Card.  Police Field Interview FI Card is currently selling for $5.99 in the Android app store.  It has the same capabilities of Field Contact.

These apps are great for departments looking to save on the cost of paper goods, as well as those looking to upgrade to electronic 'paperwork'.

Tachyon: Tough Tactical Cameras

Tachyon, Inc. are the leading manufacturers of tough tactical cameras. Cameras are not only tough, but cost-efficient.  They are all built with the needs and budgets of law enforcement in mind.  

All cameras from Tachyon, Inc. are wide-angle, date & Time-stamped HD videos.  These have numerous benefits for your department:

• Increased Professionalism - Knowing that their actions can easily be reviewed because they were recorded, officers tend to be more likely to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations set forth by their department.  No one wants to be the spoof video of what not to do used in training classes.
• Training - As just mentioned, those videos of what to do and what no to do come from somewhere.  And there is no better way to teach new officers how to appropriately approach and interact with a subject than actual footage that shows what can happen in the field.
• Officer Safety - Officer safety is two-fold.  By recording incidents as they occur, officers are protected against false claims of overly-assertive force or even abuse.  The cameras also record assaults taken against police officers.  

There are night vision cameras with invisible IR light that are also must-have gear for tactical units, Four-hour plus video recording time and a rechargeable battery meets every policeman's need. 

The Dash Cam plugs into the cruiser's 12V outlet, ensuring that the camera never run out of power. Compatible with 64GB memory cards, you can save up 20 hours of video before they begin to overwrite older footage.

Tachyon, Inc. is currently offering an amazing promotion where you can try their cameras free of charge!  To utilize this promotion, 

1. Put the items that you want in your cart
2. Fill in your information (be sure to use the department's information)
3. Click the "Test & Evaluate (No Payment Needed)" button

adding to your cart, checking out, and filling out your information be sure to click on the "Test & Evaluate (No Payment Needed)" button.

The Newest In Search & Rescue

As any person in the emergency services field knows, time is always of the essence...especially in areas such as search and rescue.  Unfortunately, sometimes conditions are unsafe for rescuers to search for injured persons and sometimes it is physically impossible for rescuers (or search animals) to comb through wreckage to find the injured.  And when they are in need of emergency medical help, they don't have hours or days for someone to find them.

Because of this, a team of engineers at North Carolina State University have come up with a solution...and a very unlikely hero!  They have determined that cockroaches (yes, cockroaches) could have the ability to assist in the saving of many lives in rescue missions.

By outfitting the cockroach with a computer chip (much like a backpack) engineers are able to control the movement of the insect through electrical pulses via a computer.  Combine that with the ability to add a small camera and rescuers are able to quickly look through wreckage and rubble for survivors.  A small microphone can also be added to the chip, which would allow rescuers to communicate with survivors when they were found.

Doug Nakama of the San Diego Fire Department said, "Time is critical. The golden hour for victims is critical for the survivability rate.  The roaches could prove important if they can reach areas search dogs and cameras cannot."

To answer the question, "why cockroaches?"...the engineers determined that it was significantly more cost efficient to utilize the insects than it would be to attempt to build a robot that had the size and maneuverability of a cockroach.

Check out the following video to see these cockroaches in action...

Cyborg Cockroaches: The Future of Search and... by NewsyVideos

Facebook As A Crime-Solving Tool

We are large into educating our followers of our blogs about the importance of utilizing a little precaution and thought regarding the information that you post on the internet.  As, what you put out there today, will most likely still be there (somewhere) 10 years from now.  However, there are still lots of people who stupidly post on Facebook and other social networking sites.

A simple Google search will lead you to find hundreds (or even) thousands of news stories where stupid Facebook updates have led police to the capture of criminals.  These stories range from parents thinking a picture of their baby pretending to smoke from a bong is funny to the arrest of a mafia hitman who was so update-happy the FBI were able to track his GPS.

Police departments across the country are becoming more and more wise of the impact of social media.  This goes well beyond a department realizing the need for a Facebook account.  It points to  fact and are beginning to utilize social media as a valuable method of collecting evidence about crimes and criminals.

A recent article by CNN looked at a pioneer in the emerging area of collecting criminal information from social media websites.  It's becoming a big thing the city of Cincinnati.  They are collaborating University of Cincinnati's institute of Crime Science to further understand how to search for and collect information.  They started small, like many departments, and had a few officers who would look for and make note of possible criminal activities.  However, it wasn't until the collaboration that things really took off.  By working with social-media experts, they were able to learn how to more efficiently search for information.  This information (such as a known criminal's friend list) was then placed into a database, which was then able to be cross-referenced against known criminals and records. Officers quickly learned that Facebook was being utilized to set up drug deals, brag about crimes, and even as a place to share videos of criminal activities.

Although the judicial system is still largely playing a game of catch-up with the advances in technology.  However, warrants are available for the official collection of online data from all of the social networking sites out there...and that allows for the appropriate chain of evidence for the information to be utilized in court.

If social media is going to be a means of mass communications among criminals, departments across the country are going to have to become knowledgeable of how to search and acquire that information as well.

How Dirty Is Your Communication Center?

We've done an article or two about the dirt, grime, and germs that can live in and on your computer.  If you've missed them, your computer can be quite disgusting.

Over time, lots of stuff can accumulate both on and under your computer keyboard keys (as well as your LCD screen, mouse, and your work station).  The majority of what is on and in your computer is comprised of food crumbs, minor drink spills, and generic household dust (which is comprised of everything from dirt to dead skin cells).  This grime can cause your computer to stop working properly or even make you sick.  As for making you sick, the dirt can be harboring a lot of potentially harmful bacteria (such as staph or E.coli).  Some studies have even found that many work stations rival the germ-factor of public restrooms...particularly if they are shared by multiple people.

You can clean your personal computer by gently shaking out crumbs and using a little disinfectant cleaner (always onto a lint free cloth and never directly onto the computer, of course).  But, what do you do about your communications center that is manned 24/7?

Most departments have a janitorial staff that cleans the room.  However, they rarely manage to clean in/under/around the workstations of the employees....and they definitely don't ever touch the computers to clean them.  So, how dirty are your communication centers?

The bottom line, it's pretty dirty.  Getting it cleaned will probably help to keep the employees that work their healthier as well!  A company called Console Cleaning Specialists specialize in cleaning 911 centers, dispatch centers, and other mission critical offices throughout the United States.  Utilizing a team of trained professionals, they (quietly) clean your mission critical offices without affecting your ability to continue to do the essential daily jobs with minimal interruptions.  This is not a regular daily or weekly janitorial cleaning.  A cleaning from Console Cleaning Specialists is a once or twice a year deep cleaning of your work stations.

To schedule an appointment or to get an estimate of the cost to clean your communication center simply request a quote on their website!