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Latinos join academy to better understand law enforcement
Police are finding a way to reach out to the Hispanic community by offering them an insider's look at the department. The language barrier and a misunderstanding of how local law enforcement works has created an air of mistrust among the city's Hispanic residents, said Miguel Santana, a Mexican national who joined the Forest Park Hispanic Citizens Police Academy to help end fear among his Latino counterparts. "Everybody has fear of the police. They think they will go to immigration," Santana said. During the nine-week program, students learn about police procedures, gangs, traffic law and domestic violence. They also ride along with officers and receive firearms training.
www.ledger-enquirer.com
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Security Drills Focus on G8 Summit
The G8 Summit always attracts protesters and, as a result, this year?s summit in Georgia has been designated a national special security event. Members of the media were given a look Wednesday at security drills being conducted in preparation for the event scheduled to be held on Sea Island from June 8 to June 10. The drills are taking place at the Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth County. State law-enforcement officials said they hope to avoid what happened in Seattle in 1999. ?The one percent are the ones we're training for. The people who are going to or attempt to use this in a way of violence to break the law,? said Bob Buffington, the training center?s director.
www.11alive.com
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FBI steps up watching web hate groups
The FBI has increased its monitoring of hate groups' Web sites since the conviction of a white supremacist on charges he sought to have a judge murdered, agency officials said. Agents also are providing protection to a man mistakenly identified on one Web site as being a witness in the case. Federal officials won't tolerate anyone crossing the line from protected free speech to advocating violence in the wake of Matthew Hale's conviction, said Richard K. Ruminski, the FBI's assistant special agent in charge of counterterrorism investigations in Chicago. Ruminski said Tuesday that a couple of unnamed Web sites have been of particular concern, with views "almost threatening in nature."
www.kfmb.com
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Homeland Security releases interoperability requirements
The Homeland Security Department?s Science and Technology Directorate released today a document outlining technology requirements for public safety wireless communications and interoperability. The document, which was developed under Project Safecom, outlines for the nation?s 50,000 public safety agencies the future requirements for communicating and sharing information, the department said. ?The statement of requirements is a critical document that will provide first responders with the architectural framework for future interoperable public safety communications,? said David Boyd, Safecom?s director. In the months and years ahead, the needs of the user community will help drive the development of various communications products that allows the nation to begin to reach a functional level of interoperability, he said. The requirements not only complement the grant guidance in place, but also provide a roadmap for the nation?s interoperability goals, said Charles McQueary, Homeland Security?s under secretary for science and technology. The requirements provide the public safety community with a shared vision and describe how first responders can use in-the-field information resources more efficiently.
www.wtonline.com
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Homeland Security to merge offices aiding states
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge will soon announce a merger of offices that aid state and local governments in an effort to better administer billions of dollars in grants to first responders, officials said Wednesday. The department will consolidate the Office of Domestic Preparedness and the Office of State and Local Government Coordination into a new Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, ODP Director Suzanne Mencer told House lawmakers. She said a 60-day review of the proposed merger has been completed, and Ridge is expected to announce its official implementation "any day now." "The consolidation will enable the department to evaluate programs more accurately, exercise greater federal oversight, and ensure that government-provided resources are dispersed quickly and used to maximum efficiency," she said. "This decision will benefit states and localities by providing them with a unified and coordinated means of assistance and support."
www.govexec.com
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Homeland Security Picks Anser To Run R&D Center
The Department of Homeland Security has selected Analytic Services Inc., known as Anser, to manage the Homeland Security Institute, the department's first federally funded research and development center. The government think tank will provide independent analysis on a variety of matters related to securing the homeland, much of it involving technology. Homeland Security plans to spend nearly $130 million over the next 4 1/2 years on Institute research and operations, the department said Friday. The department said it chose Anser from a field of seven companies that were evaluated by a team of government and private-sector scientific and technical experts for their management and technical approach, past performance and experience, subcontracting, cost, and financial capability.
www.informationweek.com
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Better Port Cargo Screening Urged After Blast
A container explosion at a Port of Los Angeles terminal prompted three union locals Thursday to demand better screening of cargo going into and out of the nation's busiest shipping basin. Los Angeles Port Police ruled out terrorism and suspect that the container blew up Wednesday in a freak accident when batteries packed too close to a truck with an unsealed gas tank ignited fumes. But union officials told hundreds of members Thursday that the explosion revealed security lapses that need immediate attention at the port complex. "It could just as easily have been Al Qaeda packing that container," Dave Arian, president of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, Local 13, said after the union hall meeting. "And what we learned yesterday is that nobody would know that until it was too late."
www.latimes.com
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Bush approves directive to bolster biodefense
President Bush, who has made national security the centerpiece of his campaign for re-election, has signed an order to help protect America from hostile states or terrorists who might attack with biological agents. "Biological weapons attacks could cause catastrophic harm," an unclassified version of the directive says. "They could inflict widespread injury and result in massive casualties and economic disruption." The directive, which Bush approved last week, was jointly announced today by the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and Defense. The actual directive, which is classified, works to coordinate what the government already is doing to protect food and water supplies, for example. And it instructs agencies on how to better plug holes in the nation's defenses against biological attack. "Defending against biological weapons attacks requires us to further sharpen our policy, coordination and planning," the directive said.
www.baltimoresun.com
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U.S. praises Canada's new national security policy
The United States is applauding Canada's new national security policy that will be released this week, partly because it's so much like their own. Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said yesterday he briefed his American counterpart, Treasury Secretary John Snow, while the two were attending meetings of top economic officials from the world's richest countries. Ottawa wants to boost its security budget by $500 million to be administered by the new department run by Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan. The policy she'll unveil is expected to include attempts to improve maritime security, passport control and communication between intelligence agencies. "It sounded to me very much like what we're doing with the Department of Homeland Security," said Snow. "I applauded the developments.
www.canoe.ca
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Davis seeks briefing on rail security pilot program
The chairman of the House Government Reform Committee asked the Transportation Security Administration this week to give him a briefing on a pilot program to address vulnerabilities at rail and transit stations. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., sent TSA a list of questions concerning the Transit and Rail Inspection Program, which will test passenger- and baggage-screening technology and processes at the New Carrollton transit station in suburban Washington. Davis asked TSA for a briefing by May 11 regarding the program, its testing and implementation. Davis said he was "encouraged" by the creation of the program. "While few details of the program are known," he wrote, "TSA states that TRIP would be less time-consuming and intrusive than airport screenings."
www.govexec.com
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