TechnologyCool technology from DHS

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employs more than 240,000 people in a variety of areas and activities, from border security and aviation to emergency response and cybersecurity, plus everything in between. The department’s employees have only one goal: to protect the United States.

Many may not be aware of the fact that DHS has also been busy developing some cool, high-tech, life-saving gear to protect people before, during, and following disasters and emergencies.

The Criminal Justice Programs Online blog offers some examples of this gear. One is a prototype that can save someone’s life after a disaster, whether terrorist or natural, by detecting a person’s faint heartbeat under thirty feet of rubble. Dubbed FINDER, it can even tell rescuers whether it is a human or an animal trapped below. Then there is a smartphone app to help law enforcement officers catch child predators.

Here is more about these innovative technologies.

• A device to detect a heartbeat under thirty feet of rubble
  “Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response” — also known by its acronym FINDER — is a device created in a joint effort between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and DHS to help rescuers find disaster victims buried underneath rubble and debris. FINDER can detect a heartbeat from over 100 feet away (in open spaces) and through twenty feet of concrete and thirty feet of rubble.
  How does it work? It is all about sensitivity. Since it is incredibly difficult to detect heartbeats under that much rubble, FINDER comes equipped with some of the most sensitive microwave radar technology available. Writing about FINDER at Fast Company, Ariel Schwartz points out that while no one wants animals to be victims in these tragic circumstances, rescue workers have to prioritize and make sure the humans come first. With this new technology, many more lives can be saved in disasters.
• An app to protect your children
  Another new development, while perhaps not as spectacular as FINDER, may be just as important. DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have joined forces to create an application which is both effective and can make a real difference. The app’s success depends on one of the strongest resources against child predators: you — and your phone. The app, named Operation Predator, allows people to find out about known predators at large, 24/7. You can see which criminals are the current top priority and report a sighting right on the spot. When you notify authorities, law enforcement agencies receive e-mails or phone calls immediately. The time lag between bad activities and agents finding out about them will soon be a thing of the past. And there is a good chance of instantaneous positive identification.
  Due in large part to this enhanced coordination between law enforcement agencies and the general public, children have already been saved. Special Agent James Hayes Jr., working out of the New York Field Office of DHS, says that in the first six months of 2013 alone, they have saved more than 330 victims of child sexual exploitation and arrested almost 1,000 predators.
• Technology and social media
  One development you may not have welcomed concerns our privacy. A recent inspector general report described how DHS monitored social media accounts during police investigations and natural disasters. Arrests have been made by cross-referencing pictures found online, noticing possible threats and intercepting parties, and other uses of online data. In the report, however, the inspector general took the DHS to task, informing them that they needed better rules and regulations in place for Twitter, Facebook, and the like in order to improve both privacy and legal safeguards. For instance, investigators had used social media to detect benefit fraud by monitoring individuals online. The only problem: it was an improper use of online tools for undercover work. So, they stopped doing it – we hope!

The learn more about criminal justice degrees online, which schools offer them, how to apply, and much more, visit the CriminalJusticeOnline Web site.