nypd

As the U.S. gun control debate continues in full force, several authorities are looking for ways to catch people illegally possessing firearms.

The New York Police Department announced today that it will soon adopt portable scanning technology that lets police officers see from a distance whether someone is carrying a concealed weapon, according to the New York Daily News.

The scanner is a device small enough to fit in a police van or set up on a street corner that reads terahertz radiation, which is energy emitted by both humans and inanimate objects. When aimed at a person, it'… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Where are we? Apple Maps makes a mess.

- Apple can replace broken iPhone 5 screens in the store, says report.

- iPhone 5 gets the teardown treatment.

- Apple accused of ripping off famous Swiss clock design.

- Apple about to make owner of Earpods.com very rich.

- ATTN New Yorkers: Register your gadgets with the NYPD.

- Neil Young says piracy is the new radio and the best way to get your music heard.

Bathroom break video: 1989 Radio Shack Cell Phone Commercial… Read more

McKayla is not impressed with Thursday's big tech stories:

Microsoft helped develop a surveillance system for New York that pulls in information from video camera footage, 9-1-1 calls, radiation detectors and license plate readers, and analyzes the data in real-time to better fight crime and terrorism. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the program, known as the Domain Awareness System, and it will be available to law enforcement agencies around the world (New York earns 30 percent of sales revenue). It doesn't use face-recognition software, but even still, some critics are worried officers could abuse this technology and … Read more

Updated 11:39 a.m. PT on Aug. 8

Fearing a possible shootout at the Broadway theater where former boxing champ Mike Tyson is performing a one-man show, the New York Police Department has subpoenaed Twitter to cough up information on a specific user's account, according to the Associated Press.

"This s--- ain't no joke yo I'm serious people are gonna die just like in aurora," one of the user's tweets read, according to the Associated Press. Another tweet from the same user cautioned, "I'm in Florida rite now, but it'll … Read more

Hacktivist group Anonymous is planning to hold a special "Day of Vengeance" in several cities around the U.S. on Saturday.

Late last night, Anonymous--or at least people claiming to be from Anonymous--posted a press release on Pastebin, saying that Saturday will be marked by peaceful protests in cities across the U.S. combined with cyberattacks on "various targets, including Wall Street, Corrupt Banking Institutions, and the New York City Police Department."

Anonymous didn't say the cities in which the protests will be held, though New York would seem to be an obvious guess.… Read more

Why walk the streets when you can sit back at Starbucks, open your laptop, and listen to them?

Why pay snitches when you have some of the finest snitches of all in Facebook and Twitter? Not the companies themselves, you understand. Just the people on their sites.

That seems to be the spirit of a new unit created by the New York Police Department.

Conscious of the realities of virtual communication, the department has, so the New York Daily News tells me, decided bad deeds can be anticipated or corralled on Twitter and Facebook. So it has set up a … Read more

The riveting YouTube film, in which an officer of the NYPD appears to be auditioning for the linebacker job at NYG or NYJ, is raising blood pressure readings in many parts of the community.

It appears to quite clearly tell the story of an assault by a police officer on a cyclist. But is that the only story it tells?

Unlike many movies, which give you everything in one sitting, this film seems to have a significant amount of European art house about it. There are questions left unanswered.

No one who sees it could deny that the NYPD officer … Read more

My co-worker Jim likes to say that it's impossible to look tough on a Segway. In fact, he does a hilarious little impression of a Segway rider wherein he assumes impossibly proper posture, slightly leans right and left, and makes mousy little beeping noises to imitate a horn.

If Jim is right about the Segway's lack of menace, it's probably a good thing the NYPD's deploying the two-wheeled scooters to cops in city parks and on boardwalks rather than on the streets of the South Bronx.

About 25 members of the NYPD have been trained to … Read more