March 2006

On the cover: Team Adam, of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, harnessed technology to help reunite families in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. An estimated 5,000 children were reported missing after the storms. Pictured are Officer Matthew Dexter of the Houston Police Department and Brook Schaub of NCMEC Team Adam, at work in the Reliant Center in Houston, Texas. Photograph by Matthew Jordan Smith.

Articles

• Communications: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Missing Persons Hotline

  By Ben J. Ermini, Executive Director of Case Management Operation (Retired), National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Alexandria, Virginia
  In the chaos caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, more than 5,000 children were separated from their loved ones. Such separations are traumatic for children, parents, and guardians alike, and rarely...

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• Communications: U.S. Department of Homeland Security

  By Harlin R. McEwen, Chief of Police (Retired), Ithaca, New York, and Chairman of the IACP Communications and Technology Committee
  The lack of interoperable wireless communications systems has been plaguing public safety organizations for decades. An October 2002 sniper shooting spree underscored the critical role interoperabilit...

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• Communications: When All Wired and Wireless Telephone Circuits Are Busy

  By Harlin R. McEwen, Chief of Police (Retired), Ithaca, New York, and Chairman, IACP Communications and Technology Committee

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• Identifying the Missing

  By Regina B. Schofield
  Two of the more difficult kinds of cases for a criminal investigator to handle are those related to missing persons and those involving unidentified human remains. Not surprisingly, the two often go h...

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• No Time for Complacency: Leadership and Partnerships Are Key in Homeland Security Efforts

  By Commissioner M. L. Brown and Lieutenant L. D. Maples, Emergency Operations Section, California Highway Patrol, Sacramento, California
  Homeland security-namely, the protection of lives, the critical infrastructure, and the economic well-being of the state from terrorist attacks-has become part of the everyday vernacular of the CHP. T...

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• The Public Safety Model: A Homeland Security Alternative

  By James M. Bradley, Chief of Police, and Richard L. Lyman, Chief of the Fire Bureau, White Plains Department of Public Safety, New York
  Terrorist attacks in Madrid, London, and most recently Amman, Jordan, as well as threats to the New York City transit system and financial institutions in New York and New Jersey, have demanded the at...

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• The Collection of Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Evidence in a Global Justice Environment

  By Steven C. Drielak, Director, Homeland Security Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
  Today's global justice environment demands a new standard for collecting chemical, biological, and radiological criminal evidence in cases involving weapons of mass destruction. Recent criminal trials...

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• Slow Pursuits Lead to Fast and Safe Apprehensions

  By John Specht, Lieutenant, Hillsboro, Oregon, Police Department
  In the world of reality police television, high-speed pursuits are nearly always entertaining. But in everyday police work, high-speed pursuits are anything but entertaining. They can lead to traffic ...

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