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California

Community Policing in Salinas

Salinas PD leads an academy for community members. Go on ride-alongs with patrol officers, observe SWAT team activities, and learn about the inner workings of the department. 6-9pm for 12 consecutive weeks beginning Tues Sept. 3. To qualify, participants must be at least 18, have no felony record, and live or work in Salinas. Capped at 20 participants. Request an application in advance.

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/calendar/event_a18f5d10-0482-11e3-9ff1-001a4bcf6878.html

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From ICE

Central American students complete DHS law enforcement course at FLETC

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Twenty-seven Panamanian and El Salvadoran law enforcement officers graduated Friday from an elite training program in the United States and joined the fight against transnational organized crime.

From July 23 through Aug. 9, 14 members of the Panama National Police and 13 members of the El Salvador National Police completed the International Taskforce Agent Training Course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Charleston.

"Today a dedicated group of law enforcement professionals from Panama and El Salvador graduated from our academy and will return to their countries with new skills to use in the shared fight against transnational organized crime," said Luis Sierra, deputy assistant director for operations west within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of International Affairs.

The ICE Academy and FLETC delivered a tailored curriculum that included instruction about how to conduct criminal investigations. Specifically, the graduates learned investigative and interview techniques and how to process evidence and execute warrants. The training was made possible by funding from the U.S. Department of State.

The graduates are now part of an international law enforcement community that facilitates information exchange and the bilateral investigation of transnational criminal organizations involved in a variety of crimes, including: weapons and narcotics trafficking, money laundering, human smuggling and trafficking, cybercrime and more.

FLETC serves as the largest law enforcement training organization in the country, training the majority of federal officers and agents in the United States. In addition to providing training for more than 90 federal partner organizations, FLETC also provides training to state, local, tribal and international police in select advanced programs. Approximately 70,000 students graduate from FLETC each year.

The Charleston FLETC campus is situated on the site of the former Charleston Naval Base in South Carolina. It was established in 2004 and is one of three FLETC residential training sites in the United States.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1308/130813charleston.htm

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From the FBI

Seeking the Public's Assistance -- New Information Released in Serial Killer Case

After Israel Keyes was arrested for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig in Alaska in 2012, authorities realized that the man they had in custody was a prolific serial killer. Keyes freely admitted as much.

During conversations with investigators, the 34-year-old sometime construction worker revealed the names of two additional victims—along with tantalizing clues about other murders he had committed around the country over a period of years. But last December, Keyes killed himself in his Anchorage jail cell, leaving a trail of unanswered questions and unidentified victims.

Those victims have not been forgotten, however. Today we are releasing new information in the hopes that the public can help us identify others who died by Keyes' hands. The information includes extensive videotaped conversations with Keyes in jail and an interactive map that contains a detailed timeline of his known movements beginning in 1997.

“He gave us a number of clues,” said Special Agent Jolene Goeden in our Anchorage Division. “He talked openly about some of the homicides, but much of what he said only hinted at the things he had done. So we are trying to get information out there about what he did tell us. We are letting the public know the types of cars he rented, towns he visited, campgrounds he frequented. Anything that might spur someone's memory could help us,” Goeden said.

Apart from Koenig, who was abducted from the Anchorage coffee stand where she worked, and Bill and Lorraine Currier, a middle-aged married couple who were murdered in 2011 in Vermont, Keyes discussed “seven or eight other victims,” Goeden said. “We want to identify them.”

Investigators believe that Keyes killed and buried a victim in upstate New York in April 2009. “He also told us about a couple in Washington state, another victim in that area, and possibly others in surrounding states,” Goeden said.

FBI agents are working with law enforcement around the country to link Keyes to open cases. “If we have a missing person identified in a particular area, we work closely with that local police department to either connect the person to Keyes or not,” Goeden explained. “We have his DNA.”

It's a painstaking process, made more complicated because Keyes was meticulous about covering his tracks. In the Currier case, for example, he flew from Alaska to Chicago, rented a car, and drove 1,000 miles to Vermont where he searched for victims. He chose the Curriers randomly.

Keyes also left “murder kits” in various locations around the country that contained, among other items, weapons and cash—the money came from bank robberies he committed to support his criminal activities. The caches provided further cover because Keyes didn't have to risk boarding an airplane with a weapon or using credit cards that could later connect him to a crime in a particular area.

“Although he chose many of his victims randomly, a tremendous amount of planning went into these crimes,” Goeden said. “Keyes enjoyed what he did, and he had no remorse at all. He told us if he hadn't been caught he would have continued kidnapping and murdering people.”

We need your help. If the videos or map regarding Israel Keyes' movements spark any memories, or if you have any information regarding Keyes, please contact your local FBI office or submit a tip online.

“That fact that Keyes is dead makes it more difficult for us,” Goeden said, “but the investigation absolutely continues.”

Controlling Until the End

Israel Keyes' suicide in jail in December 2012 surprised FBI investigators and members of the Anchorage Police Department working on the case. Since his incarceration earlier that year, he had been talking—apparently enjoying the cat and mouse game with investigators who were trying to get information about his other victims.

In return for the clues he gave, Keyes wanted things as well. “He wanted to avoid numerous trials in different jurisdictions,” said Special Agent Jolene Goeden. “Ultimately, he wanted the death penalty and he wanted it quickly. He didn't want to sit in jail for a long period of time.”

Although Keyes seemed at times cooperative, Goeden said he was very careful about divulging information and was always in control of what he said. “His crimes were meticulously planned, and our interviews with him were the same in a way,” she said. “I never got the sense that he accidentally told us something or got angry and something flew out of his mouth. My impression was that he always knew what he was going to give us.”

In the end, Keyes exercised the only control he had left by taking his life. “He talked about not wanting to spend the rest of his life in jail, and I know he was getting frustrated with the system and how long things were taking,” Goeden said.

- Listen: Agent Goeden Describes Aspects of Case

Israel Keyes Case

Israel Keyes is believed to have committed multiple kidnappings and murders across the country between 2001 and March 2012. The FBI is seeking assistance in developing more information about his travels to identify additional victims.

Anyone with information concerning Keyes is encouraged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI .

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/august/new-information-released-in-serial-killer-case/new-information-released-in-serial-killer-case

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From the Department of Homeland Security

A Major Step Forward in Better Protecting Federal, State and Local Cyber Networks

This week, DHS achieved an important milestone towards better protecting government networks from cyber attacks. The General Services Administration yesterday announced a contract award that will allow government agencies to partner with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deploy Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) technology that will enhance the security and resilience of their networks – better safeguarding both the sensitive data on those networks and the critical functions they provide to all Americans.

Through the CDM program, DHS works with partners across the entire Federal executive branch civilian government to deploy and maintain an array of sensors for hardware asset management, software asset management and whitelisting, vulnerability management, compliance setting management and feed data about an agency's cybersecurity flaws and present those risks in an automated and continuously-updated dashboard. CDM, which will also be available for state and local entities as well as the defense industrial base sector, provides our stakeholders with the tools they need protect their networks and enhance their ability to see and counteract day-to-day cyber threats.

Whether to receive important health or emergency information or to check on the provision of essential government services, millions of Americans visit government websites every day. While increased connectivity has transformed and improved access to government, it also has increased the importance and complexity of our shared risk. The growing number of cyber attacks on Federal government networks is growing more sophisticated, aggressive, and dynamic.

Government computer networks and systems contain information on national security, law enforcement, and other sensitive data, including information about federal employees and others. It is paramount that the government protects this information from theft and protects networks and systems from attacks while continually providing essential services to the public. As the department responsible for securing unclassified federal civilian government networks—the “dot-gov” domain—DHS coordinates the national response to significant cyber incidents and maintains a common operational picture for cyberspace across the government. Part of that responsibility includes network intrusion detection and prevention technology under a program known as Einstein. When both programs are implemented, they will provide complementary protections across the dot-gov domain, further protecting the government's infrastructure and the nation's data.

Under the CDM program, participating departments and agencies will be able to enhance their cybersecurity assessments by implementing automated network sensor capacity and prioritizing risk alerts. Results will feed into agency-level dashboards that produce customized reports that alert information technology managers to the most critical cyber risks, enabling them to readily identify which network security issues to address first, thus enhancing the overall security posture of agency networks. Summary information from participating agencies will feed into a central Federal-level dashboard, managed by DHS' National Cybersecurity Communication and Integration Center, to inform and prioritize cyber risk assessments across the Federal enterprise and support common operational pictures that provide cybersecurity situational awareness to our stakeholders.

The CDM program will strengthen cybersecurity across the “dot-gov” domain, improve our cybersecurity posture, and enhance other critical cybersecurity capabilities to thwart advanced, persistent cyber threats in a dynamic threat environment.

DHS has partnered with the General Services Administration to award a multi-vendor, five-year blanket purchase agreement contract for the CDM program, that will provide real-time diagnostic and mitigation services to federal executive branch civilian agencies, state and local entities, and the defense industrial base sector. The BPA is an overarching contract with an estimated ceiling of $6 billion over its five year duration (one-year contract with four additional one-year options) and is open to all Federal civilian departments and agencies, the defense industrial base sector, as well as state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. This significant contract award is designed to support Federal civilian networks and the extensive number of cybersecurity requirements for any Federal custom and cloud application over the life of the contract, and will be funded through each participating department and agency, not solely by DHS.

For more information about CDM, visit http://www.dhs.gov/cdm. For more information about the CDM contract award, visit www.gsa.gov/cdm.

http://www.dhs.gov/blog/2013/08/13/major-step-forward-better-protecting-federal-state-and-local-cyber-networks

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