Chicago Publishes Crime Stats Online

CHICAGO -- Long a city with a reputation for withholding information, Chicago now wants to make public every crime over the past 10 years — a highly unusual move among the nation's major police departments.

View Chicago Crime Database

Starting Wednesday, millions of crime statistics dating to 2001 will be posted online in a searchable database. It will be updated daily, providing fodder for residents to evaluate their own neighborhoods, academics to study crime and techie types to create websites or apps.

The release is the latest attempt by the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who took office in May, to make city dealings more open and counter Chicago's reputation for entrenched systemic corruption and backroom deals. Chicago officials recently posted online the salaries of city employees, city contracts and lobbying data, with more information expected in coming months.

"It's a whole new era of openness and transparency," said Brett Goldstein, the city's chief data officer and former police officer. "You determine your own analysis."

While some city critics are skeptical, Chicago's crime data release goes beyond what other major police departments do, crime experts say. Besides listing every crime over the past decade — some 4.6 million incidents — the database also lists each address, if there was an arrest, the police beat, city ward and case number. That includes everything from sidewalk arrests for marijuana possession to homicides.

An average person can already get details on a crime that happened the day before, but now they'll be able to look back over the past decade on their neighborhood, ward or entire city. It also increases the potential for more long-term studies by experts and, some hope, take steps toward crime prevention.

"It's big," said David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "If not unprecedented, it's very unusual."

While no one tracks the some 15,000 police departments nationwide, a check of other major police departments that post crime statistics online shows nothing as comprehensive as Chicago.

Many, including Los Angeles, use a third-party company that maps data over a limited time period, generally a month or two. Los Angeles also has some historical data available, but it's through static reports or compilations of incidents. That information isn't searchable and a recent check showed links to several years were broken. Houston has a 30-day log. New York publishes weekly data, and has some historical data online, though the department has faced criticism for allegations of manipulating data and the police commissioner recently formed a unit to look into the claims.

The Seattle Police Department appears to come closest to what Chicago is attempting. It offers logs of 911 calls and has a searchable database, but the time and incidents aren't complete.

Prior to Wednesday, Chicago offered a 90-day glimpse of crime in a mapping tool. The city added a yearlong database earlier in the summer.

Chicago's data won't include some cases that are under federal investigation. Also, the database won't specify if the shooting was police officer-involved, for instance, though all homicides will be in the database, city officials said.

Some advocacy groups worry the information doesn't go far enough because it doesn't include race or detailed police reports.

"It would be one small step in the right direction," said Tracy Siska, executive director of the Chicago Justice Project, which helps increase public access to information. He called the police department's reputation "horrible" when it comes to doling out information, citing an incident last year when the group waited 78 days to release details on the sexual assaults, he said.

Also he said such massive information dumps aren't always user friendly to the average person. City officials recognized that fact, but Goldstein said there are more

He said those who stand to benefit the most are academics and journalists because the data will be in one place, cutting down on Freedom of Information Act requests and other time-consuming and costly requests for records.

Yale University professor Tracey Meares, who has long studied Chicago crime, said it sends a message to academics that the Chicago Police Department is "an agency that's willing to share."

"That kind of transparency is a good idea," she said.

More information available at our website www.cdpinfo.com

Feds: Taliban supporter charged in NY drug sting

An indictment accuses Taza Gul of selling assault rifles and heroin to a DEA confidential source

NEW YORK — The Drug Enforcement Administration in New York has arrested several men overseas, including a man they say who agreed to support the Taliban in Afghanistan through drug sales.

Taza Gul Alizai was one of four men charged with conspiracy in a case announced Tuesday by federal authorities in Manhattan.

An indictment accuses Taza Gul of selling assault rifles and heroin to a DEA confidential source. Authorities say the source purported to be a broker of weapons and narcotics who said the proceeds of the sale of the narcotics would ultimately be given to the Taliban.

Three others charged in a separate indictment were accused of agreeing to sell narcotics to a DEA source, knowing that the individual would use profits to support Hezbollah.

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Another Potentially Deadly Laser Incident

 

Officials say a laser light was shined into the cockpit of Continental Flight 1531 that was heading to Chicago just after its recent takeoff from Washington States Sea-Tac Airport.

Points to Consider:
Officials say these incidents on the rise, there have been more than 1,100 incidents reported across the nation in 2010 including 26 at Sea-Tac alone. Consider that these lasers can be extremely powerful, and can temporarily blind pilots which is extremely dangerous especially during the most crucial part of flight either takeoff or landing.

Social Networking And Terrorism

 

Anyone can have a Facebook page; a person just has to sign up for an account. More than 300 million people worldwide connect with Facebook, which raises the question: Is this, the next wave of terrorist recruiting?

Points to Consider:
With the revelations that that recent terror suspects turned to the internet for counseling on an online Islamic web sites, consider that there are many different ways in which contemporary terrorists use the Internet, ranging from psychological warfare and propaganda to highly instrumental uses such as fundraising, recruitment, and the coordination of actions. Social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, have become increasingly popular. Additionally, Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California already has large numbers of users in the Arab world. There are at least 900,000 users in Egypt, 250,000 in Saudi Arabia, and 300,000 in Lebanon. These sites are a good way to meet people and stay in touch with friends, but there is a dark side as people with evil intentions can also network with like minded or vulnerable individuals, and can provide a perfect venue to expose impressionable people to radical ideologies and extremist elements on the Internet.

For more information visit www.cdpinfo.com

Alert Issued For Terror By Mail

Due in part to intelligence intercepts suggesting that terror groups were exploring the possibility of sending gift-wrapped parcel bombs to prominent persons, including some politicians, India’s security officials recently issued a warning to be on the lookout for suspicious packages.

Points to Consider:
Consider that package and letter bombs are a common terrorist technique to spread fear. Experts say that the letter bomb may have been in use for nearly as long as the common postal service has been in existence. Letter or package bombs are usually designed to explode immediately on opening, with the intention of seriously injuring or killing the recipient (who may or may not be the person to whom the bomb was addressed). They are hard to stop because you are talking about thousands of packages that mostly do not get checked before they are delivered. Be aware that packaging for package bombs takes many forms, ranging from letter bombs to large packages and can come from any source. Indicators that may help identify a package or letter bomb: package has no return address, or return address is different from location where mailed, incorrect spelling, of address or it is poorly typed, package contains restrictive markings such as Confidential or Personal, excessive postage, unusual odor, oily stains on the package, or protruding wires, string, or tin foil, unusual size, shape, weight, or balance of weight in the package, or excessive string or tape used to secure the package.

More information available at www.cdpinfo.com

Detergent Suicide In Louisville

Louisville Fire & Rescue’s hazardous materials team was asked to respond after Metro Police officers found a suspicious vehicle bearing a note that warned “use caution hazardous materials” with an unresponsive man inside.  Points to Consider: Consider that suicides attributed to inhaling hydrogen sulfide gas created by mixing normal cleaning chemicals have increased. The method, which has been introduced via web sites, has been linked to many suicide cases initially in Japan, but with the availability of H2S ingredients as well as instructions on the Internet for committing suicide using H2S have made it an increasingly popular choice. For more information visit our website at www.cdpinfo.com

Citizen soldiers: Users must defend cyber front line

 

It is neither the National Security Agency nor the Cyber Command, but the user community that is on the front lines of cyber defense. The actions of users that have been attributed to a moderate percentage of cyberattack successes is what has to be addressed. We need to increase the users’ knowledge and awareness.

Given that users are on the front line, cyber threat awareness training is a must in today’s high-threat environment. However, only a small percentage of users receive awareness training about cyberattack techniques that target them. The purpose of cyber awareness training is to focus attention of users on security and common techniques used by attackers. Because this threat environment is so dynamic, cyber threat awareness training must be continual and not a one time thing.

The effort to improve awareness of cyber threats is designed to change the behavior and reinforce good security practices by computer users. To be effective at this, organizations must present meaningful and timely subjects to the general user community on a regular basis. The Technolytics Institute think tank for which I work has analyzed this area and concluded that the awareness training should be conducted every other month rather than each month. That’s because a monthly cycle seems to wear on the users and might be viewed as too received as too heavy. Technolytics found that end-user training topics must include:

*Common mistakes.
*E-mail threats.
*Social engineering.
*Phishing.
*Passwords.
*Cyber terrorism.
*Common attacks.
*Symptoms of attack.
*Anti-virus software.
*Spam threat.
*Personal accountability.
*Other connected devices.

Keeping users aware of cybersecurity threats is a critical aspect of an organization’s overall security program. If we were able to cut routine user mistakes in half, the integrity of our systems would increase exponentially.

For more law enforcement tools and information visit our website at www.cdpinfo.com