Apparently, law enforcement is seriously stepping into the 21st century. According to a report, police dep artments in Boston, Cincinnati and over 100 other communities have begun using a text message tip-line in the hopes that cellphone-savvy youngsters will alert them if they see a crime being committed, or know of one ahead of time. "It's obvious that the future of communication is texting," said Boston Police Crime Stoppers commander (and techno-visionary) Michael Charbonnier, adding that the department's system as yielded, "Some great drug information, specific times, dates, names of suspects, locations, pickup times, [and] license plate numbers." The only roadblock? Getting cops to understand that OMG doesn't refer to a terrorist attack.

Cops doing computer forensic work already have a ton of tools to choose from, but Microsoft is doing its part to help out as well -- the company just revealed that it's been distributing a special thumb drive to cops in 15 countries to help them identify and extract information from suspects' computers. The drive, called COFEE for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is in use by more than 2,000 officers, including some in the States, and Microsoft is giving it away for free, saying that its doing it not for profit but to "help make ensure the Internet stays safe." COFEE contains more than 150 commands that can be used to collect information, decrypt passwords, and poke through network activity, which helps alleviate the problem of having to remove and transport a suspect's computer for evidence purposes -- officers can just plug in the drive. There's no word on when Microsoft will start widely distributing the drives, but we'd assume it'll be soon.

[Thanks, Yoshi]

While actually picking locks is no large task these days, cracking into one's highly encrypted information in OS X could prove problematic if the culprit had something to hide. SubRosaSoft's USB key purportedly allows "law enforcement professionals to perform live forensics on Mac OS X systems," and once the software on the included drive is ran, it automatically extracts data from the Apple Keychain and system settings to "provide the examiner fast access to the suspect's critical information with as little interaction or trace as possible." The program then compiles the details into a database and stores it back on the drive's internal memory, which can supposedly be read back on Windows, Linux, or OS X machines at base. Before the devious ones in the crowd get too excited, though, we should probably warn you that interested consumers will be forced to "provide proof that they are a licensed law enforcement professional," and even then, it will run you anywhere between $399.95 to $499.95 depending on your exact profession. But hey, we're sure you know a private investigator or police officer who can hook you up, right?

[Via DragonSteelMods]

It's kind of sad when one of the main features being touted by the LAPD about its new flashlights is their inability to provide suspects with a good beating, but after that very public 2004 incident in which a motorist took 11 blows from a heavy 'torch,' we guess the new model's light weight is indeed an important selling point. The 10,000 Pelican 7060's that officers will soon begin carrying -- specifically designed for the department of Rodney King fame -- sport two separate power switches, a no-slip 'grenade grip,' cooling fins on the shaft, and 130 lumen LEDs that are said to be capable of momentarily blinding a non-compliant individual. Sounds like good news for criminals and the falsely-accused, but maybe not so great for that cop in the direct path of a raging meth-head; in those situations, we'd take the cold hard steel aluminum of our four D battery MagLite over a wimpy Pelican any day of the week.

[Via The New Zealand Herald]

Police in Scotland have begun field-testing a pair of tactical gloves that sport built-in metal detectors for identifying sharp objects during routine pat-downs -- and should they fail to detect a hidden weapon, they're made out of Kevlar to protect the wearer during the ensuing knife fight. Although not specifically mentioned in the source article, it seems the Scottish cops are trying out seven pairs of the HF-1 from Adams Electronics, which are powered by regular 9-volt batteries and vibrate inconspicuously at the wrist to signify that an object has been detected. Available in either "passive active" or "dual active" configurations (depending on whether one or both of the gloves sport a detector), the HF-1s deployed for the trial cost about $370-a-pair, and are being used to supplement the 1,000 or so FriskerPRO-like handheld detectors that are already in use. Overall these seem like a good way for officers to protect themselves without getting too touchy-feely with suspects, but on the other hand, they may just encourage enterprising criminals to step up their game and begin carrying around undetectable weapons like ceramic knives and filed-down toothbrushes.