Deadly 'War On Cops' Sparks US Tactic Review

[AdamG]

Probably suitable for a multiplicity of threads -

Custom, extra-secure BlackBerry phones remain a staple of the criminal underworld, and a recent bust just illustrated this point. Motherboard has learned that the FBI arrested Vincent Ramos, the founder of the well-established phone mod seller Phantom Secure, for allegedly aiding criminal organizations that include the Sinaloa drug cartel. The company altered BlackBerry and Android devices to disable common features (including the camera and web browsing) while adding Pretty Good Privacy for encrypted conversations. And it wasn't just turning a blind eye to the shady backgrounds of its customers, according to investigators -- it was fully aware of who was involved.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-arres...061700569.html

[AdamG]

MS-13 has directed its members to “take out a cop” on Long Island — prompting the NYPD to put its officers on high alert, according to a new memo obtained by The Post. Police are hunting for the suspect, a tall, light-skinned Hispanic man with a thin build and a tattoo of three dots next to his eye.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/19...cop-in-ny.html

[davidbfpo]

Two sheriff's deputies in Florida have been killed after a gunman shot them through the window of a restaurant where they were eating, police say.

The title is from the Gilchrist County Sheriff's comments:

I don't have answers to why this happened....What do you expect happens when you demonise law enforcement to the extent it's been demonised? Every type of hate, every type of put-down you can think of...The only thing these men were guilty of is wanting to protect you and me. They just wanted to get something to eat, and they just wanted to do their job.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43840907

[AdamG]

Since the start of 2018, at least 33 law enforcement officers across the U.S. have died while on duty -- with 21 of the deaths caused by gunfire.

Roughly 135 cops died in 2016, making it the deadliest year for police officers in at least five years, Fox News has determined. While there were fewer deaths in 2017, the numbers weren’t much better: A total of 129 officers died last year. And 46 of those deaths were caused by gunfire.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/25...y-in-2018.html

[AdamG]

A data breach at a federally funded active shooter training center has exposed the personal data of thousands of US law enforcement officials, ZDNet has learned.
The cache of data contained identifiable information on local and state police officers, and federal agents, who sought out or underwent active shooter response training in the past few years. The backend database powers the website of Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training -- known as ALERRT -- at Texas State University.
The database dates back to April 2017 and was uploaded a year later to a web server, believed to be owned by the organization, with no password protection.

"This intelligence could be easily exploited by domestic terrorists or 'lone wolfs' to exploit the weaknesses discussed in this correspondence," he said. "For instance, an individual who wanted to push a particular state or local agency and the community it supports into a crisis need only look for an agency or community in this data that has expressed concern for their ability to respond to a active shooter."

The database has since been removed, but it's not known who else accessed it or what damage may have already been done.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-mass...ta-has-leaked/