News Reports

By Aara Ramesh On Tuesday, June 15, the White House published the first-ever “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” an all-government framework devised to combat what President Joe Biden deemed “the most urgent terrorism threat the United States faces today.” The National...

By a Biometrica staffer It was in April that cybersecurity firm FireEye said on its Threat Research Blog that Chinese hackers suspected to be state-backed had exploited widely used networking devices for months to spy on dozens of high-value government, defense industry,...

By Deepti Govind Typically, it is the summer months that are the bloodiest in terms of mass shootings across the U.S. But what's worrying law enforcement officers (LEOs) particularly this year is the unrelenting surge in gun violence that began well before...

By a Biometrica staffer In what was supposed to be the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, a joint report published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has sounded an urgent alarm over...

By a Biometrica staffer INTERPOL announced on June 8 that it had succeeded in taking down a “record number” of fraudulent online pharmacies and arresting 277 people worldwide with the help of law enforcement, customs and health regulatory authorities in 92 countries....

By Aara Ramesh In what is being called the “largest and most sophisticated” operation ever against encrypted criminal activities, Europol, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and law enforcement agencies in 16 countries across the world have managed to take down hundreds...

By a Biometrica staffer On Monday, June 7, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued model legislation for states to use as a blueprint to create their own extreme risk protection order (or ERPO) gun removal laws — sometimes called "red flag" laws...

By Aara Ramesh As of June 1, downtown Vegas is completely open for the first time in over twelve months and the buzz is almost palpable. Already, live music has returned to the Strip. Casinos are taking down plexiglass dividers and are...

By a Biometrica staffer On Thursday, June 3, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that preliminary data seems to indicate that U.S. traffic deaths shot up by 7.2% in 2020 (as compared to 2019), despite the pandemic and associated lockdowns...

By Aara Ramesh The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week ruled decisively in favor of tribal law enforcement, reaffirming their authority over federal crimes on their land. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, the land’s highest court on June...

By a Biometrica staffer On Tuesday, June 1, Pope Francis made a long-awaited change to the criminal section of the Code of Canon Law, or Catholic Church law: The changes explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests who misuse their...

By a Biometrica staffer On Monday, May 31, the Center for The Defense of Children’s Rights, published a report in which it said it had uncovered a “disturbing pattern” of child sexual abuse at as many as 18 schools and childcare centers...

By Aara Ramesh As the dust settles, more details are emerging about the past of the gunman who killed nine people and then himself in San Jose on Wednesday, May 26, in what is the Bay Area’s deadliest mass shooting. Samuel Cassidy,...

By a Biometrica staffer Early morning on Wednesday, May 26, a gunman — identified as Sam Cassidy by media reports — opened fire at a public transit rail yard in San Jose, California. He ended up killing at least eight of his...

By a Biometrica staffer Americans appear to be preparing to flock to Las Vegas this Memorial Day Weekend to kickstart the summer in true pre-Covid style. Authorities in the City of Lights are expecting to have their busiest weekend yet since the...

By Aara Ramesh The Gordian knot that is the gun control debate in America has flared up in recent weeks, as the number of mass shootings has surged and as the National Rifle Association (NRA) is battling bankruptcy and corruption charges in...

By a Biometrica staffer There were at least 12 mass shootings that took place between Friday night, May 21, and Sunday, May 23, in the U.S., CNN reported. According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), the country has had 230 mass shootings in...

By Aara Ramesh On May 18, Governor Doug Ducey signed into law a bill that excludes narcotic drug testing products from an existing law that classifies them as illegal drug paraphernalia. The particular target of this action are fentanyl test strips (FTS),...

By a Biometrica staffer On Wednesday, 24 hours after the Florida Senate overwhelmingly voted to approve a potentially precedent-setting gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe, the ayes in the Florida House also held sway in a bipartisan vote, sending the measure negotiated...

By a Biometrica staffer The US House of Representatives on Tuesday, May 18, passed the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act in a 364–62 vote, sending it to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The initiative to pass the bill was led...

By Aara Ramesh Four months later, America is just starting to grapple with the iceberg that is the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. While the political debate over the nature of the insurrection rages on, federal law enforcement...

By Aara Ramesh It might be tempting to think that child sexual abuse is a phenomenon of the digital age, a purely modern trend. While it is true that the epidemic has worsened with the advent of the internet, it has been...

By Aara Ramesh The fallout of last week’s ransomware cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline continues. On Wednesday, May 12, the Biden–Harris administration announced that it was implementing an All-of-government plan to combat fuel shortages resulting from the attack, with the president also issuing...

By Aara Ramesh In a heartening sign, the commercial gaming industry posted record revenues in Q1 2021, the American Gaming Association (AGA), the casino industry’s national trade group, announced on Tuesday, May 11. With intakes soaring above $11 billion and a 21.1%...

By Charlotte Spencer On Tuesday May 11, 2021 a Texas Judge granted a motion to dismiss the National Rifle Association's (NRA) attempt to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reasoning that “the NRA did not file the bankruptcy petition in good faith because...

By Aara Ramesh On Monday, May 10, Europol released a new batch of photos as part of its “Trace an Object” program, an ongoing effort to solve child sexual abuse cold cases across the continent. In their public appeal, the agency said that they are particularly looking for details...

By a Biometrica Staffer On April 8, speaking from the Rose Garden less than 24 hours after another mass shooting, President Joe Biden announced an initial set of measures to take on what he called “an epidemic” of gun violence. He stated that...

By a Biometrica staffer Moises Alexis Reyes-Canales of Maryland pled guilty on May 6 to charges of conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise that involved the murder of one person and the attempted murder of two others in Annapolis. Reyes-Canales, 23, aka...

By a Biometrica staffer If you recall, just over a week ago, we had written a piece on how organized crime groups (OCGs) managed to carve out a $2.6 billion cut in Italy’s strong tourism sector, based on an article by the Organized...

By a Biometrica staffer In the last week or so of April, sentences were given out to various individuals who had committed drug-related crimes. Biometrica rounds up ten of those for you, based on statements published by the Department of Justice (DOJ)...

By a Biometrica staffer Image Source: FBI's Crime Data Explorer: LEOKA In March, just a day after a 21-year-old shooter opened fire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, killing 10 people including a police officer, we examined the felony killings of American...

By a Biometrica Staffer The middle of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic is probably not the time to have to worry about another potential virus outbreak, but that’s exactly what the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) agriculture specialists had to deal with in...

By a Biometrica staffer Wisconsin's first wolf hunt in six years did little to resolve man-wolf conflicts, and may have harmed breeding among as many as 100 wolf packs instead, a report by conservation group Wisconsin’s Green Fire said. During the last...

By a Biometrica staffer "Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President. No president has ever said those words from this podium. No president has ever said those words. And it’s about time." There was an explosion of excitement on Twitter at those words from President Joe...

By a Biometrica staffer Organized crime groups have managed to carve out a $2.6 billion cut in Italy's strong tourism sector, according to a recent report published by Italian think thank Demoskopika. While that revenue is split between three groups, one of...

By a Biometrica staffer The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will hear oral arguments on April 28 in a case involving a former high school cheerleader, which is expected to have major implications on the way schools can view and...

By a Biometrica Staffer If you talk to any investigator working in child protection, he or she would tell you it is a mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting job, because of the nature of often horrifying crimes they are constantly investigating, the...

By Anand Vasu On April 22, five years to the day since eight members of the Rhoden family were shot and killed in four different locations in Pike County, Edward “Jake” Wagner pleaded guilty to the murders as emotional scenes engulfed the...

By Anand Vasu On April 21, the Manhattan District Attorney announced initiatives that would change the way cases with regards to prostitution and unlicensed massage would be prosecuted in the jurisdiction.  District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr., who heads one of the...

By Anand Vasu It took just a little over 10 hours of deliberations for the jurors in the trial of former policeman Derek Chauvin to bring an end to a courtroom drama that has gripped the world for the past three weeks....

By a Biometrica staffer On April 19, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey signed a package of bills into law, with an aim of bettering the criminal justice system to make it more respectful and responsive to victims of sexual assault crimes....

By Anand Vasu Last week, San Jose-based videoconferencing platform Zoom made a big announcement, which it labeled, “On Academic Freedom for our Higher Education Users.” The crux of the statement was that in the case of Zoom meetings and webinars hosted by...

By a Biometrica Staffer On the 14th anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were killed and 17 others wounded, the United States woke up to the news of yet another mass shooting on Friday, April 16, this time...

By Anand Vasu The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned on April 16 that actors of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) were exploiting five known vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities listed by the FBI were: CVE-2018-13379 Fortinet FortiGate VPN CVE-2019-9670 Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite...

By Anand Vasu Cornell D.A. Johnson, of Chicago, was sentenced to 45 years in prison on April 13 for producing child pornography involving multiple minors. Senior U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm called Johnson the “ringmaster” of the operation and said that...

By Anand Vasu In their 2021 Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment, or SOCTA, Europol has identified the most serious threats posed by criminal organizations to individuals and businesses. The annual report, put together by Europol after analyzing data from law enforcement...

By a Biometrica staffer On Monday, April 12, erstwhile and disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein made his appearance via video conference along with his attorneys at an extradition hearing. He was secretly indicted by a grand jury in Los Angeles a couple...

By Anand Vasu The April 9 release of lapel video and dash cam footage has shed fresh light on the fatal shooting of Darian Jarrott, a New Mexico State Police Officer in February 2021. Jarrott was shot and killed in the line...

By Anand Vasu President Joe Biden’s announcement of six actions impacting gun regulation on April 8, following three mass shooting incidents earlier in the year, met with sharp reactions. As expected, the NRA was strongly critical of Biden’s announcements. “Let's be clear...

By Anand Vasu On Thursday morning, speaking from the Rose Garden and flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland and less than 24 hours after yet another mass shooting, this time in South Carolina, President Joe Biden announced an...