Feature Stories

By a Biometrica staffer One-and-a half centuries. Over 400 Indigenous boarding schools run by the federal government, with support from religious institutions. The use of systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies in an attempt to 'assimilate Indigenous persons.' Corporal punishment to enforce rules...

By a Biometrica staffer In a previous piece, we gave you a quick look at contractor fraud. We examined what it is, looked at common signs, and gave you a few tips to protect yourself from falling prey to such scams. In...

By a Biometrica staffer The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published what it called the first complete enumeration of tribal court systems operating in the United States. Termed the National Survey of Tribal Court Systems (NSTCS), it consists of three surveys specific...

By a Biometrica staffer An estimated 3.4 million U.S. residents aged 16 or older were victims of stalking in 2019, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) said in its Stalking Victimization report published this month. That estimated number amounts to around 1.3%...

By a Biometrica staffer On Friday, Feb. 4, the Justice Department announced that Aaron Crawford of Maryland had been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release. Why? For engaging in what Attorney General Merrick B....

By a Biometrica staffer There's no doubt that combating child sex abuse material (CSAM) is a serious challenge that law enforcement officers, parents, caregivers, and various others involved in or concerned about child safety and protection face. Sample this: Of the 21.7+...

By a Biometrica staffer Workplace related harassment, assault and other acts of violence is not new to healthcare workers. Even around a decade ago, research by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had found that healthcare workers were at increased risk for...

By a Biometrica staffer An overwhelming majority (over 90%) of all money mule transactions identified through the European Money Mule Actions are linked to cybercrime, the Europol says. What does that mean? It means a large number of law-abiding citizens in the...

By a Biometrica staffer At Biometrica, child safety and protection has always been at the heart of what we do. We ended 2021 with a look-back special at various issues surrounding this all-important public safety subject that took centerstage through last year....

By a Biometrica staffer When 2021 began, it was not a Covid-19-free world as many had hoped. For all of 2020 and several months into 2021, casinos across the country were either entirely closed or operating under capacity restrictions and other measures...

By a Biometrica staffer At Biometrica, the safety of children has always been a priority. This year, amidst general chaos and anxiety, the safety of children took center stage like never before. Here are some of the relevant issues and news stories...

By a Biometrica staffer In this piece, we look at the DHS Blue Campaign Enhancement Act, introduced in both chambers of Congress, which seeks to increase coordination between various components of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and augment the Blue Campaign....

By a Biometrica staffer In October, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) released findings of its surprise inspection initiative over the summer, which cracked down on safety issues related to the transport of hazardous materials and dangerous goods (HM/DG) as part of...

By a Biometrica staffer Last month, we kicked off our mini series on the history of Las Vegas, a city that was originally built as a desert railroad town but evolved into the casino capital of the world. The city, its residents,...

By a Biometrica staffer In the first part of our mini series on youth gangs and violence, we established that there have been repeated reports suggesting spikes in violent crime even among the youth. Just over two weeks after we published that...

By a Biometrica staffer The trucking industry is currently in the midst of a well-publicized driver shortage crisis, which has combined with other factors to exacerbate a supply chain crisis in the U.S. This has prompted some to advocate for a radical...

By a Biometrica staffer On average, a woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes across the world, according to a report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) this month. In...

By a Biometrica staffer On Monday, Dec. 6, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) published data on nearly 8.9 million criminal offenses reported via the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2020. Of the total 8,879,728 offenses reported in 7,560,867 incidents, 60.5%...

By Aara Ramesh Going off the sheer volume of content generated about it, if there’s one thing Americans can’t get enough of, it’s a story about a cult. Be that NXIVM, which made headlines a few years ago when it emerged that...

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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...

By Deepti Govind Transportation is known to be a "coveted" target among terror actors worldwide, even though certain modes have become increasingly — and thankfully — extremely hard targets to crack. Aviation, of course, is the first mode of transport that comes...

By Deepti Govind Earlier this month, there were reports of a 12-state human trafficking, joint undercover sting, called Operation United Front, that led to the arrests of 102 people. Through the operation, 47 victims were rescued, including two minors. As part of...

By a Biometrica staffer October 28 marks National First Responders Day in many parts of the country — a day that is meant to celebrate the many hundreds of thousands of people that make up the fabric of the emergency response system...

By Aara Ramesh It’s not uncommon these days, unfortunately, to see stories of children or toddlers coming upon an unsecured firearm at home and accidentally setting it off. Research from the Gun Violence Archive and the Associated Press found that gun violence...

By a Biometrica staffer Out of the total federal caseload, child sex abuse material (CSAM) production cases account for only a small percentage. Even so, the expansion of digital and mobile technology has led to a 422% spike in the number of...

By Biometrica staffer On Monday, Oct. 18, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) released the last of its Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) dataset for 2020, reporting that 60,105 law enforcement officers (LEOs) were assaulted while on the job last...

By Deepti Govind One in 10 people aged 18–25 and one in 30 people aged 13–17 experience homelessness each year. To put it another way, in a classroom of 30 students, at least one will experience homelessness this year, which means they...

By Biometrica staffer Over Memorial Day weekend in 1996, Kristin Denise Smart, a freshman at California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night when she was walking back to her dormitory after a party....

By a Biometrica staffer A majority of contacts between law enforcement officers (LEO) and the public only happens during emergencies, or situations that are highly charged and emotional. But these are not the most ideal circumstances for LEOs and the community they...

By Aara Ramesh Earlier this year, two of the most traditionally prestigious tournaments in the global tennis circuit (the French Open and Wimbledon) were dogged by accusations of match-fixing. This put authorities on the alert for something similar happening at the U.S....

By Aara Ramesh In August, police in Dallas, Texas, arrested former dentist David Thomas Hawkins, 75, for an aggravated sexual assault — that happened nearly four decades ago. In 1985, Hawkins had raped at gunpoint Carrie Krejci, and since then had successfully...