By a Biometrica staffer Only yesterday, Dec. 2, Europol announced the results of a massive international law enforcement operation that targeted money mules. The operation, codenamed EMMA 7 (i.e. the European Money Mule Action), involved 26 countries including the U.S., and led...
By Aara Ramesh Earlier this year, we wrote about a three-decade-old case in which two men dressed as Boston Police Department officers in the early hours of March 18, 1990, stole 13 art pieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and vanished...
By Aara Ramesh When it comes to gun rights, one demographic proponents of gun control are particularly concerned about is children that live in homes that also have firearms. While the presence of a firearm in the house can be dangerous to...
By Deepti Govind The 15-year-old who opened fire on his fellow students at Oxford High School in Michigan on Tuesday, Nov. 30, has been charged as an adult with two dozen crimes, including murder, attempted murder and terrorism. He faces life in prison...
By a Biometrica staffer On Tuesday (Nov. 30) afternoon, a 15-year-old sophomore who hasn't been named yet by authorities opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan. His shooting spree ended up leaving three fellow students dead and eight others wounded. The...
By Aara Ramesh The U.S. is currently in the grip of what experts are calling a historic crime wave, with violent crime — and homicide rates particularly — reaching levels previously seen in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, over the last...
By a Biometrica staffer The multi-billion dollar casino industry, possibly much like several other sectors, has sometimes been a target of unscrupulous characters who try and use the cover of a legitimate business to surreptitiously carry out criminal activities. When it comes...
By a Biometrica staffer U.S. prosecutors recently announced that they have filed sex trafficking charges against Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, the Philippine national who founded a church called Kingdom of Jesus Christ, as well as two U.S.-based administrators of that church. The superseding...
By a Biometrica staffer Earlier this month, Congress officially passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (colloquially known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal”), which allocated over $1 trillion to physical infrastructure, as well as aspects like access to clean drinking water and...
By a Biometrica staffer Around 2.31 million passengers passed through airport screenings last Wednesday, Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA). That's over double when compared with the 1.07 million people who went through...
By a Biometrica staffer As the saying goes, where there’s a will there’s a way. A perverse version of this axiom is also applicable to fraudsters and criminals, who are always on the lookout for an opportunity to scam others. Whether that...
By a Biometrica staffer Millions are set to travel across the nation, and the world, on board commercial aircrafts this holiday season. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is concerned that it could also bring about a rise in criminal behavior occurring on...
By a Biometrica staffer The death toll in the Wisconsin case of a man driving an SUV into a festive parade rose to six on Tuesday, Nov. 23, when an 8-year-old boy died of his injuries. The number of injuries resulting from...
By Deepti Govind April 3, 2021 marked 25 years since the capture of the notorious domestic terror actor, Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Kaczynski was active for nearly two decades, but managed to evade arrest because he was meticulous...
By a Biometrica staffer The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has, once again, shown that disabled people are disproportionately targeted by criminals, and are particularly at risk of being victims of violent crimes. The rate at which disabled people are victimized, the...
By Aara Ramesh Among the many challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples in North America today, one that has gained particular attention is that of unmarked graves (usually associated with former Indian boarding schools) and of artifacts taken from various Tribes in the...
By a Biometrica staffer An SUV barrelled through barricades and drove through a Christmas parade in Waukesha (a suburban town just 20 miles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin) in the early evening of Sunday, Nov. 21, killing at least five and injuring over 40...
By a Biometrica staffer In Portsmouth, Virginia, the local police department and the Up Center are reaching out to the public as they seek mentors to help steer youth in the right direction. The two organizations have come together due to an...
By Aara Ramesh Last month, we wrote about some gaps in the child welfare system that can lead to children in foster care being abused. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s not just those children who can fall prey to abuse. Almost...
By a Biometrica staffer On Thursday, Nov. 18, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that analysis of data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) was helping it uncover the characteristics surrounding homicides of American Indian and...
By a Biometrica staffer The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced more than $139 million in grant funding through the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP). The awards provide direct funding to 183 law enforcement agencies...
By Aara Ramesh A week ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a warning that the U.S. is facing a “heightened threat environment” from domestic terrorists this holiday season. Though there have been no “credible” or specific threats yet made, the...
By a Biometrica staffer On Tuesday, Nov. 16 the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced the creation of a new Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee (STAC), which formally establishes a mechanism for Tribal leaders to engage in routine and robust conversations directly with DOI Secretary...
By Aara Ramesh Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the child welfare system was rife with gaps that made children in foster care extra susceptible to abuse. Like with many other societal problems, however, the pandemic only worsened that situation on a number...
By a Biometrica staffer A drive-by shooting around 1 pm on Monday, Nov. 15, in Aurora, Colorado, has left six teenagers (four boys and two girls between the ages of 14 and 18) injured, according to police. The incident occurred at the...
By Deepti Govind & Aara Ramesh At Biometrica, we've repeatedly written about an epidemic that many in the country have been quietly dealing with: of missing and murdered Indigenous persons. There is no doubt that it is a public safety epidemic demanding...
By a Biometrica staffer Gang activity in the United States is said to have declined in the mid-1990s to 2000. But between 2001 and 2005, it increased again and stayed constant until around 2012, per government estimates. From around 2002-2012 annual estimates...
By a Biometrica staffer Last month, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released its 2021 report on data collection activities in the realm of human trafficking covering the number of offenses reported, as well as arrest, conviction, and release data from states....
By a Biometrica staffer Terror actors are continuing to exploit online forums to influence and spread violent extremist narratives and promote violent activity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a terror threat bulletin on Wednesday, Nov. 10. These threats are...
By a Biometrica staffer Halloween 2017 turned out to be one the city of New York will never forget. At some point before 3 p.m. on the day, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov took the white Home Depot pickup truck he had rented in...
By Deepti Govind It's a story that everyone in today's legitimate U.S. casino industry knows. But some stories never grow old, no matter how many times you revisit them. So, in today's feature, we introduce you to a timeless tale: Of powerful...
By a Biometrica staffer Nationwide commercial gaming revenue smashed all quarterly records for the second consecutive quarter and reached $13.89 billion in the third quarter of 2021 (Q3 2021), according to the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker. With $38.67 billion...
By Deepti Govind The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday, Nov. 8 recent actions taken against two foreign nationals charged with deploying Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware to attack businesses and government entities in the United States. On the same day, investing app Robinhood...
By Aara Ramesh In an earlier story in this series on sports betting, we wrote about how just as there have been wagers (legal or otherwise) placed on sporting outcomes as long as there have been sports, match-fixing has existed just as...
By Deepti Govind We set the stage in a piece published about two weeks ago, on examining the kind of threats surface transportation around the world has faced from terror actors over time. To quickly recap what we said then: While the...
By a Biometrica staffer Casino news from the weekend includes reports of shootings and other crimes on properties, and a cyber crime warning. On Saturday, Nov. 6, a shooter fatally wounded two people before turning the gun on himself at Stateline Casino...
By a Biometric staffer Only yesterday, Nov. 4., we wrote about how the Justice Department had said in an interview with the Associated Press that they are stepping up firepower in the battle against ransomware attacks and cybercrime. The number of cybercrime...
By a Biometrica staffer A number of states are gaining ground on legalizing sports betting, while others that have already done so are seeing soaring revenues. Here is a round-up of recent news on the casino, gaming, and sports betting front: Iowa...
By a Biometrica staffer In 2019, the last year for which data is available, a total of 5,998 post-secondary institutions (across almost 11,000 campuses) reported 34,933 criminal offenses to the federal government, and 17,758 offenses related to violence against women, be that...
By a Biometrica staffer The Department of Justice (DOJ) is stepping up its firepower in the fight against the rapidly growing threat of ransomware attacks and cybercrime. This news comes as President Joe Biden's administration escalates its response to what it considers...
By a Biometrica staffer Yesterday, Nov. 3, the Biden Administration announced a set of three actions it will take to help prevent suicide by use of firearms, in an effort to curb one key aspect of the broader gun violence epidemic the...
By Deepti Govind From around the end of the 19th century until the middle of the 20th century, a French forensic scientist developed several key scientific methods of analysis that are still in use and remain one part of the bedrock of...
By a Biometrica staffer Earlier this week, the MGM Springfield, one of Massachusetts’ only casinos, officially reopened its poker tables after an 18-month hiatus that was prompted by Covid-19 restrictions. In doing so, it became the only casino in the state to...
By Deepti Govind The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), along with its law enforcement partners, said it removed nearly 745,000 lbs of unneeded prescriptions from medicine cabinets across the country under its National Prescription Drug Take Back Day program, which was held on...
By a Biometrica staffer As part of their mandate to prevent substance abuse, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) periodically puts out a resource guide titled “Drugs of Abuse.” The latest version from 2020 is meant to serve as a “comprehensive guide” to...
By a Biometrica staffer Early estimates of traffic fatalities for the first half of 2021 show that an estimated 20,160 people died due to motor vehicle crashes, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Transport's (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety...
By a Biometrica staffer If you are planning to apply for a new job, especially a federal one, or are planning to foster or adopt a child, or are considering other similar new opportunities or decisions in your life, it's very likely...
By Aara Ramesh Just over a week after an accidental shooting on the set of the film “Rust” claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injured director Joel Souza, 48, Hollywood is undergoing something of a reckoning in regards to...
By a Biometrica staffer In 2018, there were around 1.6 million applications for firearm transfers and permits that were subject to background checks under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Act). About 230,000 (1.4%) of these applications were denied, the Bureau...
By Aara Ramesh On Wednesday, Oct. 27, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a Virginia man, 26-year-old Zackary Ellis Sanders, had been convicted by a federal jury for producing, receiving, and possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The DOJ alleges that...