The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released its preliminary crime report for 2012, which reads as follows:

Preliminary figures indicate that, as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the nation reported an increase of 1.2 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention for 2012 when compared with figures reported for 2011. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Collectively, the number of property crimes in the United States in 2012 decreased 0.8 percent when compared with data from 2011. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime, but data for arson are not included in property crime totals. Figures for 2012 indicate that arson decreased 1.2 percent when compared with 2011 figures.

 All data in this Report are preliminary.

To view Percent Change for Consecutive Years: http://www.fbi.gov/about-u...

The Journal of Emergency Management reports:

Threats to water, a requirement for life, make for compelling story lines. The movie Batman Begins includes a poisoned water supply as a plot point, for example. But threats to the water supply aren’t just the stuff of modern fiction.

“The idea of poisoning drinking water goes back a long way,” said James Salzman, a professor of law and environmental policy at Duke University and author of Drinking Water: A History. The Roman emperor Nero is said to have poisoned his enemies’ wells in the first century. J. Edgar Hoover obsessed over threats to the water supply during World War II.

For all the drama of someone slipping poison into a reservoir, however, the reality is that many of the threats to both drinking water and wastewater are more mundane, ranging from wildfires to maintenance issues.

The infrastructure for drinking water is massive. From treatment plants to the distr...

Help Net Security Reports:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees have begun receiving notifications about a vulnerability that has inadvertently made their personal information potentially accessible to unauthorized parties.

The flaw was apparently found in the software used by a DHS vendor to process personnel security investigations and has been immediately addressed.

There is no evidence that the information contained in the system - names, social security numbers, date of birth - were actually stolen or accesses at all, but potentially affected employees, contractors, inactive applicants, and former employees and contractors will be notified of the increased risk of identity theft they might face and the steps they can take to minimize it.

"DHS is evaluating all legal options and is engaged with the vendor’s leadership to pursue all costs incurred mitigating the damages," the notice says, but doesn't say which...

Emergency Management reports:

One day something large and very bad will happen in Los Angeles. That’s a given. With training and preparation, emergency managers will be ready to respond on that day. What comes next, however, is a topic seldom discussed.

Whether in advance of a crisis or in the wake of a disaster, long-term planning is both vital and often overlooked. How will the community survive and thrive 10 years down the road, or 20 years?

“The thing about that kind of recovery is the fact that it is so big. It is so difficult for people to wrap their heads around, thinking of everybody that is involved and what their role is going to be,” said Ryan Rockabrand, program specialist in the Office of Emergency Management for Los Angeles County.

And yet the work must be done. How does long-term planning happen? It starts with partnership-building, encompasses economic revitalization and ultimately keeps a community viable....

The Naval Post Graduate School has released the following current and timely research on gun violence in schools:

Abstract:

Gun violence in America must be addressed at the highest levels of society. Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech were attacks on the very fabric of America. School shootings represent attacks on our nations’ future.

A public health approach to gun violence focuses on prevention. Public safety professionals, educators and community leaders are squandering opportunities to prevent horrific acts of extreme violence. Preparedness is derived by planning, which is critical to mobilizing resources when needed. Rational public policy can work. Sensible gun legislation, which is accessible through a public health approach to gun violence, neither marginalizes nor stigmatizes any one group.

University administrators must fully engage the entire arsenal of resources available to confront this pernicious threat. The ...