Subject: [NEXTEL-1] April 1, 2004 - NLECTC News Summary

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 16:23:43 -0500

NLECTC Law Enforcement & Corrections Technology News Summary
Thursday, April 1, 2004
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   * "Field-Tested Taser Beats Hot Lead"
   * "A Jolting Arsenal"
   * "Outback Boy Has the West's Fastest Gun"
   * "A Secure Place to Treat Offenders"
   * "Test Shows Limits of Tracking"
   * "Passport Safety, Privacy Face Off"
   * "Cellphones Offer Way to Track the Kids"
   * "GPS Tracks State's Youth Offenders"
   * "Network Staking Its Future on Security"
   * "Terrorism Database Still Far From Reality"
   * "Making an Impression"
   * "Georgia Ports to Install New Security Systems at Savannah,
     Brunswick"
   * "Police Aim to be on Cutting Edge"
   * "All (Camera) Eyes on Parking Garage"
   * "National Criminal Intelligence Net Slowly Takes Shape"
   * "Washington State Department of Corrections Biometrically Processes
     Over 300,000 Offender Reports per Year with IR Recognition Systems
     HandReaders"
   * "Alternative Weapons Give Police Nonlethal Options"
   * "FBI Wants Push-to-Talk To Be Wiretap Capable"
   * "Future Tech: Trends for the Coming Year"
   * "New Ways to Probe the Depths"
   * "Can a Crying Baby Stop a Riot?"

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"Field-Tested Taser Beats Hot Lead"
Santa Fe New Mexican (03/26/04) P. A9

Police in Santa Fe, N.M., were able to apprehend a cocaine trafficker
who was resisting arrest by shooting him with a Taser. In an editorial
in the Santa Fe New Mexican, the author praises the cops for not using
lethal force. The availability of such technology in 1993 may have
prevented the shooting of Pancho Ortega when he was surrounded by cops
but was holding a knife. A domestic endangerment subject was recently
fatally shot because a Taser did not arrive at the crime scene in time.
The author believes that unnecessary police shootings will continue
until Tasers become a less cumbersome weapon. www.santafenewmexic
an.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=42478&SectionID=26&SubSecti onID=&S=1

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"A Jolting Arsenal"
Syracuse Post-Standard (03/25/04) P. B1; Goldberg, Delen

The Oswego, N.Y., Police Department has decided to add tasers to its
arsenal of non-lethal weapons, becoming the first law enforcement agency
in Central New York to use the electric-charge devices. The department
began using sponge-round guns and pepper spray in January. With the
addition of the tasers, the department now has three types of non-lethal
weapons that can be used to fit the particulars of varying incidents,
says Sgt. John Braisington, commander of the department's Special
Response Team. The eight members of the Special Response Team will be
equipped to carry the $800 devices. Each of the members volunteered to
be shocked by a taser, which allows the officers to understand what
effect the weapon has on its victims, says Chief Alexander Zukovsky.
Zukovsky notes that the tasers have a variety of uses, from preventing
suicides and fights to stopping suspects from fleeing authorities.
Oswego police officers successfully used sponge bullets in February to
prevent a man from committing suicide, says Zukovsky.
www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/new s-4/108020886664160.xml

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"Outback Boy Has the West's Fastest Gun"
Australian IT (03/30/04)

The newly developed Variable lethality enforcement (Vle) gun has been
called the globe's smartest firearm by the Guinness Book of World
Records and is being evaluated by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research
Project Agency. Developed by Australian self-tutored physicist Mike
O'Dwyer, the Vle can communicate in several languages, transmit sounds
to law enforcement authorities, and discharge lethal and non-lethal
bullets. Furthermore, it will operate only when in the hands of its
licensed owner, thereby providing greater security. The technology is
being made and marketed by a Brisbane, Australia-based firm called Metal
Storm, which is working with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to
ensure that the gun operates only after identifying the registered
user's grip. The firm has also produced a gun 36 times larger than the
Vle that can fire at a rate of one million rounds a minute. A single
cylinder can be used as a pistol, or several can be combined to fire
larger sprays of bullets. Both weapons are considered to be lighter,
less expensive, and faster than standard guns, and can also connect more
easily to computers. "Because it's electronic, it can interface with
other electronic systems, intelligence systems that can tell it what to
do and you don't need a person there," explains Metal Storm general
manager Ian Gillespie. www.theaustralian.news.com.au
/common/story_page/0,5744,9120615%255E15306,00.html

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"A Secure Place to Treat Offenders"
Tacoma News Tribune (WA) (03/27/04) P. A1; Turner, Joseph

The Special Commitment Center (SCC) on McNeil Island in Washington state
is a new $60 million facility intended to provide therapy to sex
offenders who are likely to repeat their crimes if released into
society. Some 190 prisoners from nearby McNeil Island Prison will be
civilly committed to SCC at the end of April, where they will receive
therapy, obtain job skills, participate in recreational activities, and
receive visits from family members. Security is provided at the 27-acre
complex by such features as a sensor-equipped barbed concertina wire
that gives off an alarm if someone tries to climb over. The alarm has
been programmed to go off only if the climber weighs more than 35
pounds, to avoid false alarms due to the islands' many raccoons. SCC
also features 24-hour monitoring, security cameras, tall double fences,
and locked doors. Administrators at the state Department of Social and
Health Services estimate that the price to accommodate each resident at
SCC will be $126,000 annually, compared to approximately $26,000
annually to keep an offender in the state prison. By June 2005, capacity
at the facility will be expanded to 308, up from the current limit of
228; the site can also be further expanded to house 404 offenders. "I
suspect the new SCC main facility will become a national model,"
forecasts Mark Seling, superintendent at the center who will transfer to
Pierce County, Wash., in April.
www.tribnet.com/news/story/4894062p-4829252c.html

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"Test Shows Limits of Tracking"
Duluth News-Tribune (03/27/04); Sherman, Amy

The state of Minnesota is using wireless-based global positioning system
(GPS) technology to monitor the whereabouts of the state's most serious
sex offenders. The technology performs better in urban areas due to the
wide availability of wireless phone coverage, as opposed to more
isolated areas such as Lake County, where 35-year-old sex offender
Curtis John Houle will wear a GPS-enabled ankle bracelet. Because of the
spotty cell phone coverage in Lake County, probation officers will not
be able to track Houle's movements by the minute. Tom Roy, director of
Arrowhead Regional Corrections, which is in charge of overseeing Houle,
has no illusions about the reliability of monitoring technology, noting
that the technology is not fail-safe. The bracelet "can be removed by
the offender if he decides that it is to be removed, and they can go
about their way," Roy says. However, the technology has been enabled to
alert authorities if an offender removes the bracelet. Level 3 sex
offenders are considered the most likely to commit more sex crimes; on
average, Minnesota annually releases about 45 Level 3 offenders back
into its communities. www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/new
s/local/8291230.htm

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"Passport Safety, Privacy Face Off"
Wired News (03/31/04); Singel, Ryan

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is developing new
worldwide passport standards that include digitized photos and may also
feature radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips for storing and
transmitting information about travelers, which a computer could compare
to a mug shot database. Though advocates believe such a system will help
deter passport counterfeiting and be an effective weapon against
terrorism, a coalition of privacy groups including the ACLU and the
Swiss Internet User Group fired off an open letter to ICAO requesting
that they delay the standards' finalization until privacy issues are
fully assessed: "We are concerned that the ICAO is setting a
surveillance standard for the rest of the world to follow," the
coalition wrote. Privacy International thinks the ICAO should have
embraced a specification that would permit computers at border crossings
to match travelers to digital passport photos, but not allow governments
to retain a central photo database. In addition, the RFID chips would
let rogue operators or unprincipled officials secretly read passports.
Travel Privacy proponent Edward Hasbrouck suggested that an augmented
bar code that can only be read with an optical scanner would have been
better. The U.S. government is eager for the new standards to be
finalized; it passed two laws requiring companies in the Visa Waiver
Program to issue machine-readable, biometric passports by Oct. 26 of
this year, but Secretary of State Colin Powell and Department of
Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge warned of "grave consequences" if the
deadline is not pushed back. Lou Fintor of the State Department reported
that his department and other federal agencies plan to start issuing
biometric passports by next year, while the ACLU's Barry Steinhardt
cautioned that such a passport would displace the driver's license as
Americans' preferred form of ID.
www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,62876,00.html

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"Cellphones Offer Way to Track the Kids"
Boston Globe (03/28/04); Howe, Peter J.

Some 60 million of the 154 million Americans who subscribe to a cell
phone service are between the ages 11 and 24, according to research from
the Yankee Group. Yankee's research also finds that 56 percent of
American youth between the ages 11 and 17 own a cell phone or have
regular access to a cell phone owned by a parent or sibling. Global
Positioning System (GPS) technology is increasingly being built into
cell phones, providing parents with a new way of keeping track of their
kids' whereabouts. Later this year, Irvine, California-based Networks In
Motion will roll out its new "Phone Locator" GPS product, which will
allow parents to access a password-protected Web site to page their
child's cell phone. Once paged, the cell phone will provide parents with
the phone's GPS location on an online map. In a nod toward privacy
concerns, the Phone Locator product allows the owner of the phone to set
varying degrees of privacy, including the ability to decline to show the
phone's GPS location. The Phone Locator product will be available as a
premium service that costs $5 to $10 per month. www.boston.com/globe

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"GPS Tracks State's Youth Offenders"
Delaware (03/26/04); Sanginiti, Terri

The Delaware Division of Youth and Rehabilitative Services is using a
global positioning system (GPS) to keep tabs on the whereabouts of young
offenders who are under house arrest, allowing the state to reduce the
number of juveniles in state confinement. Probation and parole
supervisor Steve Wesley says the GPS technology is an excellent tool for
keeping track of the movements of juveniles. For instance, the GPS
technology may show that a juvenile with a history of drug use has
traveled to a known drug area, allowing a counselor to get in a car and
retrieve the juvenile, Wesley says. The GPS technology, which is
provided by Big Brother Monitoring, is being paid for by a three-year
federal grant totaling $346,619. The costs of both staff and equipment
are paid for by the grant. The Division of Youth and Rehabilitative
Services is the first agency in Delaware to track offenders with GPS
technology. www.delawareonline.com

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"Network Staking Its Future on Security"
OregonLive.com (03/26/04); Sickinger, Ted

Portland, Ore., has spent the last eight months as a testing ground for
a secure Internet-based network intended to help government agencies and
businesses share sensitive information and coordinate emergency
responses. The technology companies that developed the system, which its
backers tout as an emergency broadcast network for the information age,
are due to introduce an "open specification" next week, so that other
vendors can integrate their technology and bid on the homeland security
contracts and grants that are becoming available. The Regional Alliance
for Infrastructure and Network Security (RAINS) is made up mostly of
small local startups, who joined together in hopes of making themselves
more visible to the federal government and more likely to get a slice of
federal spending on security technology. The spending has not yet picked
up momentum, but RAINS has grown and gained support from big companies.
Federal officials say the RAINS system in Portland is unique; it allows
emergency responders to distribute information and coordinate responses
with key organizations, and RAINS Chairman Charles Jennings says that it
is still in its early stage. "There's no benchmark for how to do this,
and it's one of very few programs to even figure out what they need to
do," says Defense Department manager Jeff Gerald. Although the program
has skeptics, Jennings notes that the system is multi-vendor and
non-proprietary; government agencies can customize RAINS-Net to suit
their needs. www.oregonlive.com

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"Terrorism Database Still Far From Reality"
InformationWeek (03/26/04); Kontzer, Tony

The House Select Committee on Homeland Security is doubtful that Donna
Bucella, director of the FBI's Terrorist Screen Center, which will
oversee the Terror Database, is correct in predicting that the database
will be finished in December. Moira Whelan, the committee's press
secretary, blames the slow development of the database primarily on the
Defense Department's reluctance to share names on its terrorist watch
list. "It's our opinion that a lot of this is a failure of leadership,"
Whelan explains. "Someone needs to say, 'I don't care what you think,
give them your list, and give it to them now.' " The database is in
operation, but information is neither complete nor stored in a organized
format. Storing information in a structured database will enable law
enforcement to reference data more easily.
www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=18402846

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"Making an Impression"
Washington Business Journal (03/25/04) Vol. 22, No. 47, P. 28; Anderson,
Tania

While it has not yet experienced the surge that many had forecasted for
the biometrics industry after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
industry experts say biometrics is a growing security trend in both the
private and government sectors. About two-dozen Washington, D.C.-area
retailers and businesses have already caught onto using fingerprint
identification biometric technology to help them confirm customers'
identities at the point of sale. Technologies like bCheck, provided by
biometric company BioPay, could eliminate consumers' and retailers'
worries by having consumers register their fingerprints and bank
information for all future purchases at participating stores. Paycheck
Secure, a check-cashing service from BioPay, allows merchants to use
fingerprint technology to verify whether someone has a record of trying
to cash fake checks. Biometric technology companies say they are
receiving a slew of interest in their products from the private sector,
and some note that their business from government agencies is also on
the rise. Market research firm Allied Business Intelligence forecasts
that the market for biometric technology will grow to $1.07 billion by
2007, and the International Biometric Association says the market will
reach $2 billion by 2006. While biometrics becomes more accepted in the
private and public sectors, biometrics companies expect technological
improvements to improve the accuracy of their products.
washington.bizjournals.com/washington/sto ries/2004/03/22/focus1.html

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"Georgia Ports to Install New Security Systems at Savannah, Brunswick"
Savannah Morning News (Ga.) (03/24/04); Fabey, Michael

The Georgia Ports Authority Board of Directors has approved two
contracts, worth $759,000, to improve the security of the state's public
ports through a perimeter monitoring system in Brunswick and Savannah.
The system will include a camera assessment system with fiber-optics,
and the contracts will be funded through $1.5 million in port security
grants from the federal Department of Homeland Security. "These latest
improvements will further improve the security and safety at our
terminals and for the people who work there," says authority executive
director Doug Marchand. The area is getting ready to up security for the
G-8 Summit meeting of world leaders in June. www.savannahnow.com

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"Police Aim to be on Cutting Edge"
Chicago Daily Herald (03/24/04) P. 3; Ray, Scott

The Lake in the Hills police department will participate in McHenry
County's implementation of computerized ticketing in police cars. Lake
in the Hills Police Chief James Wales notes the new system could cut the
time officers spend writing tickets by four to five minutes per ticket.
The system can retrieve driver's information and print out citations in
the squad car after the driver's license number and the offense is
entered by the officer. The system responds to voice command, so
officers will be able to check on motorists while driving. "This will
not only enhance officer safety, but certainly minimize errors overall,"
says Wales. The police department is requesting $17,197 in funding to
purchase laptop computers for linking its 12 squad cars to the Illinois
secretary of state's office and the McHenry County circuit clerk's
office, while the county itself is trying to secure a federal grant to
fund the system's backbone. The deployment of the system would eliminate
the clerk's office's need for personnel to enter ticket information into
state and county records. www.dailyherald.com/community/zone_story.
asp?intID=38070165&zone=cry

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"All (Camera) Eyes on Parking Garage"
Tacoma News Tribune (WA) (03/23/04) P. B1; Maynard, Steve

The city of Federal Way, Wash., hopes to construct a new 1,200-space
parking garage and transit center in downtown valued at $38 million,
featuring advanced security tools. For example, 40 digital surveillance
cameras will track every inch of the five-story garage "from many
different angles," says Sound Transit spokesperson Geoff Patrick. Other
features include panic buttons for commuters that notify personnel and
cause a camera to focus in the direction of the commuter. The stairways
will also be visible, and the elevator will be made out of glass.
Federal Way police's acting lieutenant Kurt Schwan says Sound Transit
will allow police to respond to incidents along with private security
guards, so that police can access the cameras' recordings for
investigations. However, some citizens fear the 6.9-acre facility will
only invite more crime in spite of the innovations. Construction on the
center is slated to start in June, provided that it is not affected by a
last-minute appeal attempt by opponents. At least one hired security
officer will be available at the transit complex 24 hours a day, says
Patrick. According to Federal Way Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, "one of
the major goals in Federal Way is to reduce auto theft," which numbered
1,204 citywide last year.
www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/4879862p-4815657c.htm l

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"National Criminal Intelligence Net Slowly Takes Shape"
Government Computer News (03/23/04) P. A9; Jackson, William

The Regional Information Sharing Systems network (riss.net) and the
FBI's Law Enforcement Online (LEO) will join the Open Source Information
System in April. Although riss.net chief operating officer M. Miles
Matthews says that a seamless consolidated network is the real goal,
intelligence and law enforcement personnel could not wait for that time
to begin sharing data. A trusted relationship between participating
agencies is integral to the success of the interim approach, according
to Matthews. Involved agencies will gain access to homeland security
information and be able to gather information to distribute security
alerts to private-sector organizations and public officials through the
Antiterrorism Information Exchange segment of the riss.net/LEO backbone,
which consists of a half-dozen regional secure intarnets with six hub
centers. State and Defense department databases are also accessible
through the network, as is the National Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System. The riss.net/LEO backbone is comprised of
approximately 15,000 individual accounts serving 6,800 agencies in all
U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories, Canada,
England, and Australia. www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25368-1.html

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"Washington State Department of Corrections Biometrically Processes Over
300,000 Offender Reports per Year with IR Recognition Systems
HandReaders"
Business Wire (03/23/04)

IR Recognition Systems, the biometric component of Ingersoll-Rand's (IR)
Security & Safety Group's Electronic Access Control Division (EACD),
reports that the Washington State Department of Corrections uses its
HandKey biometric readers in over 70 kiosks located in all Department of
Corrections (DOC) field offices statewide and most community
outstations. The system receives over 26,000 reports per month. All five
DOC regions have at least one location that receives more than 1,000
reports per month with the Seattle Metro office producing 1,600 reports.
Approximately 45,000 offenders are required to report on a regular
schedule or when they change addresses or employment. It is believed to
be the largest fully implemented system of its kind. "Biometrics are
used because the Department needs to verify that this information is
coming directly from the offender," explains Norm Harrison, GENIE
project manager for the DOC. "During the course of testing and
undergoing an extensive pilot project, we tried several types of
biometrics. When we deployed kiosks statewide, we went to the HandKey
based primarily on its ease of use. We experience fewer false negatives
with this system than with other biometrics we tested." (A false
negative occurs when an authorized individual cannot access the system.)
By verifying themselves via HandKey readers, felony offenders on
supervision can then simply update their address, phone number and
employment information using a touch screen monitor. This system saves
the supervising officer time in processing paperwork and inputting
computer data. "It is estimated that each kiosk report saves an officer
ten to 15 minutes in processing paperwork and computer entries,"
Harrison reports. "This allows a single officer to monitor a large
caseload of low-risk offenders." www.businesswire.com

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"Alternative Weapons Give Police Nonlethal Options"
Indianapolis Star (03/22/04) P. 1B; Spalding, Tom

Indianapolis-area police agencies are using nonlethal weapons, such as
Tasers and beanbag guns, as alternatives to firearms in dangerous
situations. About 4,400 North American law enforcement agencies equip
some or all of their forces with Tasers, according to the manufacturer.
Public safety officials hope that the use of alternative weapons will
mean fewer injuries and deaths in potentially dangerous confrontations,
though the devices are not harmless. The Marion County Sheriff's
Department has used its beanbag guns three times so far in 2004, and the
Tasers have been used 15 times this year. The Indianapolis Police
Department began using Tasers last year and has about 100 deployed to
its force. Officers say the nonlethal weapons are more of an alternative
to spray repellants than the use of deadly force in a highly threatening
situation. Taser International's Steve Tuttle says that 180 U.S.
departments add Taser technology per month.
www.indystar.com/articles/5/131477-1125-009.html

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"FBI Wants Push-to-Talk To Be Wiretap Capable"
RCR Wireless News (03/22/04) P. 6; Weaver, Heather Forsgren

The law enforcement community continues to express its concern about new
technology that could prevent agencies from tracing criminal activity.
On March 31, 2004, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Drug
Enforcement Administration filed a petition that called on the FCC to
reaffirm that the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
(CALEA) of 1994 covers the push-to-talk "dispatch" services of
mobile-phone carriers. "Communications among surveillance targets are
being lost, and associated call-identifying information is not being
provided in the timely manner required by CALEA," says the government.
"These problems are real, not hypothetical, and their impact on the
ability of federal, state, and local law enforcement to protect the
public is growing with each passing day." The FCC has said push-to-talk
services apply to CALEA, but the DOJ, FBI, and DEA say wireless carriers
are not meeting their obligation of developing wiretapping capabilities
under the digital wiretap law. Part of the debate between mobile-phone
carriers and the law enforcement community centers on whether Voice over
Internet Protocol rules make push-to-talk service an information service
or a telecommunications service, which falls under CALEA. There also is
some confusion over who should pay to develop a digital wiretapping
solution, considering the government has proposed that telecom carriers
and VoIP providers pass the cost onto customers. However, the industry
believes that law enforcement would be the customers of the wiretap
solution, and thus, federal, state, and local agencies should pay for
the digital wiretap system. www.rcrnews.com

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"Future Tech: Trends for the Coming Year"
Washington Technology (03/22/04) Vol. 18, No. 24, P. 37; Grimes, Brad

Augmented reality systems are being used by the armed forces to train
people in dealing with dangerous situations. Unlike virtual reality, in
which the user interacts with an artificial environment, augmented
reality puts users in a real environment and superimposes digital images
over their point of view via special masks or goggles. "This is a
cost-effective way to create deadly training scenarios, but without the
deadly consequences," explains Harmless Hazards CEO John Ebersole, whose
company sold a training system to the Navy to train firefighters, and
will implement another tool for the Army Transportation School in
Virginia. Meanwhile, software-defined radio (SDR) plays a vital role in
the Defense Department's transition to network-centric operations, and
law enforcement and first responders are also weighing the benefits of
the technology. SDR solutions are designed to circumvent the
incompatibility of assorted wireless devices. "Software-defined radio
allows agencies to shrink the number of boxes and waveforms to get to
the place where anybody can talk to anybody, any application can talk to
any application, and any service can talk to any service," notes John
Chapin of Vanu. His company sells SDR technology that uses software as
the medium for signal processing, enabling commercial wireless devices
to function as programmable, compatible radios. SDR technology is a core
ingredient of the Defense Department's $5.7 billion Joint Tactical Radio
System. www.washingtontechnology.com/news/18_24/cov
er-stories/23044-2.html

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"New Ways to Probe the Depths"
Washington Post (03/22/04) P. B2; Arzua, Lila

The Baltimore fire department recovered the bodies of three passengers
of a water taxi that capsized in the Baltimore Harbor March 6 using
high-tech sonar and robotic equipment. As a result of having access to
the technology, the fire department did not have to send down divers to
see underwater. Marine Sonic Technology in White Marsh, Va., donated the
side-scan sonar, and SeaTrepid in Pottstown, Pa., donated the
remote-controlled robotic camera, but the fire department also decided
to buy the two devices, which totaled about $64,000. Fire department
representative Kevin Cartwright says the fire department is considering
sharing the technology with local law enforcement agencies, considering
people often fall into the water at the Baltimore Harbor. Most of Marine
Sonic Technology's customers are law enforcement agencies and the
military, says Rob Williamson, marketing director for the company. The
sonar, the Sea Scan PC Centurion Splash Proof, which is designed to be
pulled through water by a "towfish," emits and receives ultrasound to
create images and then display them on a computer screen that is
readable outdoors, and uses a Global Positioning System to record the
location of images. VideoRay Pro II, a robot the size of a shoebox with
a 250-foot cable that is controlled using a joystick aboard a boat, is
equipped with a camera that provided the fire department with an even
closer look of the images picked up by the sonar. SeaTrepid says the
robotic camera is primarily used for search-and-rescue operations.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13641-200 4Mar21.html

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"Can a Crying Baby Stop a Riot?"
Law Enforcement Technology (03/04) Vol. 31, No. 3, P. 8; Miller, Christa

For several years now, the U.S. Department of Defense has been
developing acoustic technology as an alternative to traditional forms of
less-lethal force. Although most acoustic technologies have not been
fully tested for widespread use on the public, they could soon become
the favored less-lethal option for law enforcement agencies as well as
the military. In the past, acoustic technology has not proved to be a
viable alternative because it required large, heavy devices and did not
produce the same effects in all people. However, researchers have
shifted their focus in recent years and have developed some technologies
that are portable and easier to control. For example, American
Technology's (ATC) Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) is already employed
by the U.S. Navy for perimeter defense and could be applied to a variety
of law enforcement needs, including homeland security and crowd control.
In addition to LRAD, ATC has also developed NeoPlanar technology that is
designed to dispense information over a wide area during emergency
situations and Hypersonic Sound technology that serves the opposite
function of delivering signals directly to a specific target. Other
forms of weaponized sound include ATC's "sonic bullet," which has been
used to disperse terrorists hiding in Afghanistan, and Scientific
Applications and Research Associates' sonic "firehose." Although these
possibilities for the application of acoustic technology to law
enforcement seem promising, there is still much research and testing to
be done before they can be used in public settings.
www.law-enforcement.com