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The RF Factor

The Blotter

Nov. 22, 2023

Unity in Effort: Catching shooters

Once upon a time, Roger Staubach upon winning the Heisman Trophy in 1963 was said to have smashed his trophy shattering it into small pieces all over the ground. As his family and teammates looked on in shock and disbelief, he collected each piece a…

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Nov. 9, 2023

What can we learn from John Miller, John Gotti, and Osama Bin Laden about defining Crime Gun Intelligence?

I asked the question: Who were you more scared of - Bin Laden or John Gotti?   Without skipping a beat, he retorted, “Neither…Barbara Walters!” That was my first real exposure to the legendary John Miller: author, inves…

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Nov. 2, 2023

Combating Gun Violence: It Starts with "Why"

I bolted from my office and ran into the adjacent room we had nicknamed the fishbowl owing to the wall of indoor windows allowing any passersby to peer in on the analysts doing their work. I was hoping for some answers as my heart was pounding as it…

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Oct. 25, 2023

Unveiling the Ant-Inspired Secrets of Developing Crime Gun Intelligence Capabilities

Several years ago, I was gifted a book by Steven Johnson entitled, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. I was particularly moved by the chapter that focused on the emergence of cities and how we often forget how thes…

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Oct. 23, 2023

Long-Term Vision, Lasting Impact: Cathedral Thinking

And just like that, his words focused my thoughts! Isn’t amazing how the right words from a wise leader can have a profound impact on one's thinking. In your own life, has there been a moment when someone's words or guidance helped clarify yo…

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Oct. 11, 2023

How to build a crime gun intelligence capability

Over the past three years, Glen Pierce, Ph.D. of Northeastern University and David Lambert, Ph.D. of Roger Williams University, conducted an exhaustive study of the development of New Jersey’s crime gun intelligence capability in support of a …

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Oct. 9, 2023

Who killed Sheila? NIBIN is the critical puzzle piece for solving heinous crimes

Every night, Sheila Wallace would regularly walk her dog in McGowan Park not far from her home. When she set out on that cold January night 4 years ago this fifty-eight-year-old Cleveland resident had no idea it would be her last. She was shot down …

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Sept. 11, 2023

On this day...

It was twenty-two years ago that I was travelling on Interstate 80 east bound in Hackensack not far from the very spot where I work today.   I was headed to Ground Zero, or what would commonly become known as “the pit and the pile&rdquo…

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Oct. 5, 2022

How would you respond if the victim asked: “Am I going to die?”

As police and EMS personnel worked feverishly to save the nine-year old girl struck by a stray bullet as she played outside with her friends, she spoke her last words when they lifted her into the waiting ambulance: “Am, I going to die……

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July 7, 2022

Brewed in Milwaukee: A crime-fighting tactic deserving of national distribution

Brewed in Milwaukee: A crime-fighting tactic deserving of national distribution I just saw a CBS 58 news piece reporting that the Milwaukee Police Department has announced “Operation Save-A-Casing”, a strictly voluntary program in colla…

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