Border Security
GSN 2011 Awards Program opens for entries on April 26
Government Security News has announced that its 2011 Homeland Security Awards Program will officially open for business and start accepting entries in the program’s 45 awards categories on Tuesday, April 26.
OzVision
Alan Avidan, President, indicates that OzVision is pushing the forefront of hosted video services for dealers and users. The company’s government market includes military bases, government facilities, and national monuments such as the Washington Monument, the State of Liberty and Ford’s Theater. Avidan calls for dealers and central services to join in the hosted video movement, which he describes as the future of the industry.
VideoIQ
Scott Schnell, CEO, describes Video IQ’s next generation of video surveillance, where each of its high-definition cameras has video analytics plus half a year of storage with the camera itself, thus eliminating the high cost of storage and networking. According to Schnell, VideoIQ’s cameras with high-definition sensors can track up to 24 objects simultaneously and have 3X the field of view of conventional high-definition cameras with analytics.
T3 Motion
Gary Joubert, VP of Sales and Marketing, reports that T3 provides electric vehicles for law enforcement that are used in almost every police department in the U.S., as well as in government agencies around the world. Other markets for the made-in-the-USA T3 series include the military, general transport and the private security business. Recent improvements have been well received, and business is great!
Obama seeks three percent hike in discretionary budget at DHS
Despite official murmurings a few months ago that the fiscal year 2011 budget request for DHS might decline slightly, the budget package unveiled on February 1 actually shows a three percent increase in “discretionary spending” by DHS in 2011, versus the prior year, and modest growth, at approximately the predicted rate of inflation, in the outer years.
If suspended or denied, federal firearm licensees or applicants can submit arguments in an ‘informal setting,’ says ATF
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, known as the ATF, has proposed a new federal rule that intends to clarify that an applicant for a firearms license whose application has been denied -- or who faces suspension of an existing license or the imposition of a civil fine -- has a right to a hearing and can anticipate “an informal setting” and the opportunity “to submit facts, arguments, offers of settlement, or proposals of adjustment for review or consideration.”
Study shows terror 'hot spots' geographically in the U.S.
U.S. hot spot map
A study by university researchers on terror attacks in the U.S. between 1970 and 2008 found some areas in the U.S. have remained hot spots for the activity.
CBP designates first native American tribe’s Enhanced Tribal Card as acceptable travel document
Kootenai lands
On Jan. 31, the Idaho Kootenai tribe’s identification document officially became a valid form of identification to enter the U.S.
The tribe, whose lands straddle the U.S./Canadian border in Idaho, was the first Native American tribe to sign a memorandum of agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2009 to begin the process of creating a secure travel document denoting identity, tribal membership and citizenship. Production of the cards began in May 2011, said CBP.
Privacy group calls for moratorium on facial recognition technology
A privacy rights group told the Federal Trade Commission that the FTC should suspend facial recognition technology’s deployment by commercial users until privacy and other safeguard standards are developed.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, in comments to the FTC on Feb. 1, recommended the delayed deployment because it said facial recognition technologies can be used by strangers to determine a person's actual identity. The group said that “poses a risk to privacy and personal security.”
Gun smuggler linked to Zapata murder sentenced
Century Arms WASR-10 rifle
The man who oversaw the purchase and smuggling of the semi-automatic rifle that killed ICE HSI agent Jaime Zapata a year ago was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison on Jan. 30 in Houston, TX, on gun and drug smuggling charges.
Manuel Barba, 30, from Baytown, in southeast Texas, was sentenced in a federal court to more than eight years for exporting firearms, in addition to nine years for drug smuggling. The sentences will run concurrently, said ICE.
