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Armored Truck Involved In Serious Wreck www.privateofficer.com
Police said the crash happened on Washington Street near the Spaulding Turnpike underpass, just before 1 p.m. on January 14.
Police said the crash happened when the dump truck was making a right-hand turn into a construction site and the driver of the armored truck, C. M. Harrison, 74, tried to pass it on the right side.
A passenger, William Sullivan, 37, was ejected from the armored truck and taken to the Frisbie Memorial Hospital.
Police are still investigating the accident that injured one guard.
California man stalked women, stoled identites on Facebook www.privateofficer.com
Atlanta Ga Jan 16 2011 When you forget your password for your email account, a few standard security questions will give you a chance to prove your identity. If this information is publicly displayed anywhere on Facebook, you’re vulnerable to hacking. Here’s a cautionary tale about exactly that.
George Bronk, a 23-year-old from Citrus Heights, California, scanned women’s Facebook profiles, searching for whoever showed their email address publicly. He would then study that person’s wall and the fields she’d filled out in order to learn about her interests, activities, and other useful data he could later use to contact the female’s email service provider and say he’d forgotten his password. Using the essential information gleaned from her profile, Bronk was able to successfully answer the security questions the women had set up.
Once he gained access to the women’s email inboxes, he searched for nude pictures or videos sent from these accounts. Sometimes he forwarded this content to the victim’s entire contact list, and sometimes he contacted the victim directly and threaten to share the pictures if she didn’t send him new ones.
In some cases, Bronk would use the email account to contact Facebook and do the same forgotten password trick to score access to the victim’s entire Facebook account as well.
The good news in this case is that Bronk has been caught. One of his victims called the Connecticut State Police, which in turn alerted the California Highway Patrol. When he was finally arrested, his computer was confiscated and police found over 172 email files containing nude pictures and pornography, according to the Washington Post.
Bronk readily admitted to his crime and pleaded guilty in Sacramento Superior Court Thursday to seven felony charges, including computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child pornography. He faces a possible penalty of six years in prison when he returns to court on March 10.
Security experts told MSNBC that people can protect themselves from hacks like Bronk’s by fabricating responses to security questions. For example, say your birthplace is “1234″ instead of “San Francisco.” That requires you to remember a lot of information. It’s much easier to use the privacy settings on Facebook to limit your profile’s visibility to friends only.
How do you manage your privacy settings on Facebook?
NJ police department scales back services, response www.privateofficer.com
HOWELL NJ Jan 16 2011 — Beginning Monday, the public should not expect a township police officer to take a report of minor incidents, such as a mailbox knocked down or a small theft with no alleged suspects.
Instead, police dispatchers will take a brief description of the incident, after which the department will send the victims a “Citizen Initiated Reporting” form. The Detective Division will review the forms to see if a followup is necessary.
The new procedure, spelled out in a Jan. 11 memo from Capt. Donna Craton, does not include incidents that are in progress, has identified suspects, where there is a safety threat, damage exceeds $200, domestic violence, missing people, and incidents that are part of a pattern, such as several vandalized mailboxes.
Also, the police will no longer respond to lockouts where no one is inside the vehicle, non-life-threatening first aid calls when an ambulance is en route, house checks and environmental crimes.
What prompted this? In a word, finances.
“We need to do things better, more efficient,” said Township Manager Helene Schlegel, speaking of all township departments.
How the public will react to this is unclear, because police were just formally notifying the public — through mailings and information posted on the police website.
As of Friday, the township had 86 sworn police officers — a chief, three captains (although Craton is retiring this week), four lieutenants, 11 sergeants, 10 detectives and 57 officers, according to Chief Ronald T. Carter. The department was at its peak about two years ago with 99 sworn officers, Carter said.
“You have budgetary restraints here,” said Carter, adding the loss of police officers was basically through attrition.
The police reorganization, which took effect Jan. 1, means the traffic safety unit has one officer, down from four, and the community services unit four officers, down from eight. Community Services will still provide an officer to Howell High School, while the others revolve through the township’s other 12 public schools.
Now, about 51 officers are assigned to patrol. “We don’t want to go below that,” said Carter, who has been with the department 37 years, 18 as chief.
A year ago, there were 61 patroling officers, which Carter called “a comfortable level.” So, instead of a police officer responding to every incident, the public is being asked to self-report “if we want to maintain the same level” of general service to the community, Carter said.
“It’ll free them up to answer more serious calls or do prevention patrols,” Carter said.
“I don’t think we’re at the point where anybody thinks they’re unsafe,” Schlegel said.
How any changes, including having less police officers, will affect the police budget is not yet clear, according to Carter and Schlegel. What would have to be factored in is savings of salaries and benefits to police officers who left with raises for current police officers and the purchase of new equipment, they said.
In 2010, the police budget was $11 million of the total township budget of $42.3 million. Township officials are now working on the 2011 budget.
By midsummer, police are expected to expand the public self-reporting system to the Internet, Carter said. Studies, according to Carter, shows the Internet reporting system should reduce the workload to the equivalent of 10 percent of staff — or about the loss in police officers over the past two years.
“We’re doing the best we can,” Carter said.
“We’ll do what we have to do,” Schlegel said.
University of Rochester student stabbed to death www.privateofficer.com
The two attended a party Friday night at the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Police say an argument quickly turned physical. Venable allegedly stabbed Bordeaux multiple times.
Police were called to campus at 1:12 a.m. In less than one hour, Police Chief Jim Sheppard said Bordeaux was pronounced dead at Strong Hospital.
Bordeaux, a junior, was a political science major planning to study in Shanghai, China next month according to the university.
University President Joel Seligman called the incident isolated. “Any unexpected death in our community is a shock and a profound loss. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of our student,” said Seligman in an early email to students.
Students on campus were aware of the incident early this afternoon. “I normally feel very safe and I’m very safe and I’m hoping…it’s going to be found out-what has happened,” said a graduate student who wished to remain anonymous.
Members of the University community gathered tonight at 6 p.m. at the Interfaith Chapel to grieve
Source:WHAM.com
Internet Crime Warnings From Satsuma Police www.privateofficer.com
Satsuma Police Department’s Lt. Jana Dukes remembers it well. “People contacted us from across the country trying to find them,” she recalls. The unscrupulous couple was taking hundreds of orders and money and delivering nothing.
Working with a network of angry eBay-ers and the FBI, the police arrested the duo.
“Don’t let your guard down,” Dukes warns. “Unfortunately, Internet crime and identity theft are alive and well.”
Satsuma Police Chief David Benefield sent Dukes to the Alabama Attorney General’s 2010 Law Enforcement Summit in Montgomery, where approximately 600 law officers from across the state learned the tools and techniques of cyber crime and identify theft.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s state rankings, Alabama is 17th nationally in identity theft cases. “People need to realize the dangers lurking in common computer applications like Facebook, music download sites, smart phones and e-mail,” Dukes said.
“Free” music download sites are especially notorious, she said. Once the link is clicked on, “free tunes” are uploaded as promised — along with viruses that steal personal computer information, including bank account pin numbers and passwords.
A summit class speaker told about a case involving a California city employee downloading music from her town hall office computer. A secret program was embedded, which not only stole the employee’s I.D., but much more. Her city office computer became the virus’ gateway into city coffers, depleting the town treasury.
“Nothing is free,” Dukes advised, “especially over the Internet.” If you see an offer for free music, don’t touch it, she said. Go instead to legitimate sites, including iTunes (owned by Apple Computer Company), which charge a price for safe downloads.
Social networking can also be unsafe, Dukes warned. “All Facebook users see quizzes like ‘What Kind of Flower Would You Be?’ or ‘What Celebrity Are You Most Like?’ Some of these are after personal information,” she said. “The game works by asking the Facebooker questions, which supposedly reveal what type person he/she is.”
Embedded in those questions will be inquiries for details, such as the user’s mother’s maiden name, high school mascot or birthday. These are security questions often asked by banks when issuing forgotten account passwords. Armed with the stolen information, a Facebook hacker can access your financial accounts as easily as you can.
But cyber crime and identity theft doesn’t stop with home computers. There is gold in your ATM card, too.
“Locally, our main problem involving identify theft is an occasional dishonest store cashier,” Dukes said. People think if their card is given back quickly after ringing up a sale, the cashier couldn’t possibly have time to memorize the credit card information. Wrong.
“All a cashier has to do is remember the last four digits,” Dukes said. “The rest of the card number is electronically stored in the store’s card reader. I’ve seen surveillance videos of cashiers lip-syncing numbers to memory as they jot down the four digits.”
Thieves also know how to steal key parts of card readers at gas pumps and the data line that transmits pump purchase information to the cash register.
“Waiting for a gas station worker to turn his back, a good thief can exchange the store’s data cord, installing his own in two seconds,” said Dukes. “A customer pumps gas and pays with his debit card — which is retrieved by a cell phone into the wrong hands.”
Criminals also install bogus card readers over ATM machines. When an unsuspecting patron inserts a card and enters the PIN, the bad guys have it, not the bank.
“Report any suspicious ATM card reader that just doesn’t ‘feel’ right,” Dukes said. “Don’t assume the bank is aware of it. Most banks use outside services to service and inspect their ATM machines.”
“Awareness is the key,” added Satsuma police officer Corp. Kent Sellers. “Stay suspicious and question any money transfer over the Internet or a machine.”
Source:AL.com
