Year: 2018
Scams targeting elderly people are endemic in Texas. Older people are more vulnerable to fraudsters leading police departments to step up awareness campaigns to protect the elderly. Recently, the Dallas Morning News featured the work of Christopher Bianez, an officer with the Plano Police Department. AARP Magazine featured Bianez on the cover of its March…
Cybercrime has become such a common term, it’s hard to believe that computer and internet crimes didn’t exist less than half a century ago. Before computers, robbing someone required breaking into their home or snatching their purse or wallet on the street. Today, people can commit these crimes without ever seeing or contacting the victim….
When summer is just around the corner, most kids look forward to getting out of school and hitting the beach, the park, or just hanging out at home. Everyone likes a break now and then, and modern teens definitely have a lot of on their plates. However, summer can be a precarious time for young…
In a further victory for privacy, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled police must obtain a warrant to use cellphone locational data in the tracking of criminal suspects. This important ruling by the justices was handed down on June 22. The 5-4 decision was criticized by former prosecutors and dissenting justices who said it puts…
For years, a massive backlog of untested rape kits in Texas has hindered investigations and the potential exoneration of people wrongly convicted of sexual offenses. However, a new law that crowdfunds money for rape kit testing is making a dent in the problem. It collected almost $250,000 in its first five months, according to the…
A recent case in which a Romanian man was sent to a federal prison for a year illustrates how aggressive cyber gaming tactics can cross a line and become a criminal offense. Last month, a federal judge sentenced hacker Calin Mateias after he launched a series of cyber attacks after he became angry in the…
Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure have been upheld in two recent landmark Supreme Court rulings related to the searches of vehicles. In both rulings handed down last month, the U.S. Supreme Court defended the right to privacy even when the parties in question broke the law. The cases were reported in USA…
Most people use the internet every day. Whether you go online for work, school, or just to connect with friends and loved ones, there’s a good chance you conduct several searches each day. In fact, Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second of every day. The internet has also changed just about every…
“White-collar crime” is a phrase reportedly coined in 1939. It’s also a phrase that covers a wide range of criminal activities. To count as a white-collar crime, an offense must typically involve a financial or fraudulent activity that is non-violent. In many, but not all, cases, the individual who engages in a white-collar offense is…
Most of us are familiar with field sobriety tests for suspected drunk drivers. A DWI suspect may be asked to walk in a straight line or to stand and turn to indicate if he or she is intoxicated. These tests are still widely used in Texas DWI cases to establish probable cause despite evidence that…