So how many of us love our local Target
stores, I know I do. I recently found out that Target is more than
meets the eye, literaly! Did you know that Target has its own
forensics lab?? Neither did I! Apparently it is the most advanced
crime lab in the country! Target is helping to take back
our communities, read this article written by Sarah Bridges from
the Washington Post......
When
arson investigators in Houston needed help restoring a damaged
surveillance tape to identify suspects in a fatal fire, they turned
first to local experts and then to NASA. With no luck there,
investigators appealed to the owner of one of the most advanced
crime labs in the country: Target Corp.
Target experts fixed the tape and Houston authorities arrested their suspects, who were convicted. It was all in a day's work for Target in its large and growing role as a high-tech partner to law enforcement agencies.
In the past few years, the retailer has taken a lead role in teaching government agencies how to fight crime by applying state-of-the-art technology used in its 1,400 stores. Target's effort has touched local, state, federal and international agencies.
Besides running its forensics lab in Minneapolis, Target
has helped coordinate national undercover investigations and worked
with customs agencies on ways to make sure imported cargo is coming
from reputable sources or hasn't been tampered with. It has
contributed money for prosecutor positions to combat repeat
criminals, provided local police with remote-controlled video
surveillance systems, and linked police and business radio systems
to beef up neighborhood foot patrols in parts of several major
cities. It has given management training to FBI and police leaders,
and linked city, county and state databases to keep track of repeat
offenders.
Target's law enforcement efforts date back at least a
decade but intensified after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The company has applied in-store practices, such as
inventory-tracking technologies, to the business of identifying and
locating criminals. "In many ways, Target is actually a
high-tech company masquerading as a retailer," said Nathan K.
Garvis, Target's vice president of government affairs.
"It struck me that following repeat criminals was really an inventory-management problem," Garvis said. He turned to the partnerships Target had already developed with law enforcement -- Target's assets protection group is headed by Brad Brekke, a former FBI agent, and is staffed by former police officers.
Working with local and state jurisdictions, Target donated what boiled down to tracking technology and database translation, as well as employees to work on the project. "This kind of thing has been tried before," said Richard W. Stanek, a former Minnesota public safety commissioner. "The extra thing that Target brought was neutrality -- and mediation. They physically brought the different arms of law enforcement together and helped get us talking." For several years, a database called CriMNet has been used in Minnesota in the prosecution of the felonies. It is one of several alternatives under consideration for a national criminal database.
As the project gained footing, Target investigators began working with law enforcement agencies in sting operations and surveillance concerning crime in their stores. Target began helping law enforcement on cases that had nothing to do with its business. It wasn't long before Target was analyzing criminal evidence for police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"One of the nation's top forensics labs is located at Target's headquarters building in downtown Minneapolis," said FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe, who has worked with Target. "They have abilities and technology that far surpasses many law enforcement agencies in the country."
Target forensics investigators spend 45 percent of their time offering pro-bono assistance to law enforcement. Target declined to say how many cases that involves per year.
Visiting the forensics lab entails a trip to Target's
corporate security department, past red-and-white bull's-eyes
and up the elevator to the second floor. Through password-protected
doors is a windowless room -- the desks packed with computers and
flat-screen monitors, and a wall decorated with the badges from the
law enforcement agencies that Target has helped. Motion-detection
sensors linked to silent alarms sweep the ceiling above the locked
evidence room, and only four employees have access to the
facility.
Besides helping law enforcement solve crimes, Target has a
prevention program called "Safe City." It began two years
ago in a police precinct in Minneapolis and has spread to dozens of
other cities including Washington, Boston, New York and
Atlanta.
In the Washington area, Target is using Safe City at two stores in Prince George's County -- at Forestville Mall and P.G. Plaza, with increased cooperation between its own security officials and law enforcement in patrolling areas around the buildings.
Modeled after a community surveillance program in England, Safe City uses video and computer equipment to help police patrol neighborhoods by remote control, coordinated with security workers at participating businesses.
Target's latest ventures include building a forensics lab for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, including FBI and other agency officials in their corporate leadership programs and providing various agencies with "sting trailers," trucks filled with electronics and other merchandise to lure criminals -- and containing wireless devices that send information to police. The company also has run programs for the World Customs Organization to determine how to protect cargo through advanced technical systems and "smart boxes."
Here is a comment from Anderson Cooper from CNN:
Target does the work for free, seeing it as a kind of community service. It doesn't advertise its crime lab services, but word started spreading and law enforcement agencies started asking for help. Some government agency labs aren't as well-equipped as Target's. In other cases, Target can get results faster because of logjams in agency labs.
Target's lab is run by an ex-FBI agent and boasts a staff of forensic experts. They spend a lot of time analyzing video from surveillance cameras in their own stores.
The day we visited we looked at how they helped crack a murder case using video from a convenience store security camera in Minneapolis. The Target team cleaned up the image of the shooting suspect, but that wasn't enough to identify him. Then they figured out what kind of car he was driving, even though you could barely see the vehicle through the store's window on the surveillance tape. It was the stuff of CSI.
Police put these pieces together to help identify the murderer. He's now serving a life sentence in prison.
So if you are a theif, or any other type of criminal I feel sorry for you, or maybe not! LOL This is such a great thing I think if more retail stores did this then we can return lower prices, since it is the fault of those theives who drive up costs for us law abiding citizens. I am proud to say I have always shopped at Target and will continue to support such a great cause!! Tell me your thoughts....
