New, Non-lethal Technologies Offer More Options to Police
by Robert Hausman
Technological advances in today's average police arsenal have
generally not kept pace with other developments in society. In an age
that has seen the advent of jet travel, outer space exploration,
miraculous medical discoveries and the personal computer, many of
today's crime fighters are still heavily reliant on the 19th century
gun-and-stick technology of Wyatt Earp.
While technology in and of itself will not solve the crime problem,
emerging new technologies offer law enforcement more options to the use
of deadly force, operational efficiencies and greater safety for
themselves and the public.
Today's law enforcement market is highly diverse, and comprises nearly
three million potential customers from police departments, correctional
facilities, private security firms and fire departments, according to
the US Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and
the US Bureau of the Census. There are about 860,000 police officers in
17,000 departments throughout the country, according to the National
Institute of Justice (NIJ).
Most police departments are small; only two departments have more than
8,000 officers (New York City and Los Angeles), 90% have fewer than 25
officers, and 50% have less than 12 officers. Each of these agencies
have different equipment requirements. Thus, the market is thought by
analysts to be large enough to sustain an industry, but too small to
produce the kind of sales revenue to support the research and
development base needed to create the new products necessary for it.
Enter Uncle Sam
While the fragmented nature of the police market has stifled the
development of products designed solely for law enforcement end-users,
the end of the Cold War has also brought about an unprecedented
opportunity to apply to the needs of today's lawmen and women some of
the technologies developed for the military. A five-year partnership
was recently announced between the US Departments of Defense and
Justice, to jointly share and develop technologies of value to both the
police and military operations "other than war."
Last fall, the pilot National Law Enforcement Technology Center
(NLETC) opened in Rockville, MD. The center, a program of the NIJ, is
responsible for facilitating the identification, development,
manufacture, and adoption of new products and technologies designed for
law enforcement and criminal justice uses.
The center encompasses a technology information demonstration
facility, and will compile information on manufacturer and product
identification to allow those agencies seeking a particular product to
obtain a comprehensive list of manufacturers. It will also help
facilitate exchanges of product data, enabling agencies considering the
purchase of a particular product to get in touch with another agency
that is already using the device, to provide evaluation data on how
well the item functioned.
The center also provides technical assistance to help police
departments locate equipment available for loan or lease from another
agency, and to locate experts in various fields for technical advice.
The Rockville center is the first of what is envisioned to be a
nationwide network of regional centers providing such information and
resources.
Past Gov't. Efforts
In an unusually frank statement on the failure of big government
largess, anti-gun Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) described as a
"disaster" previous federal efforts to transfer technology to local
departments through the ill-fated Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration, in an address during the Law Enforcement Technology for
the 21st Century conference, held last June in Washington, DC.
"The federal government," Schroeder admitted, "threw money out all
over America . . . it wasn't coordinated, it wasn't operable, nobody
really knew what they were buying, everybody got fancy new light bars
for their police cars. . . That's why we're trying to do it differently
this time."
By creating the partnership between the Departments of Defense and
Justice, it is hoped that funding will not be just splattered around,
and that local law enforcement agencies will not be told to "just go
buy something."
Current NIJ Projects
With the US military increasingly engaging in peacekeeping missions
abroad, there is a growing similarity between the various technologies
of interest to the military and domestic police. Identifying persons
illegally carrying firearms, the safe restraint of individuals and
quickly but safely stopping a fleeing vehicle are examples.
Some of the current NIJ research projects include: improved security
systems for prisons; concealed weapons/contraband detection
technologies; tracking systems for use in the monitoring of suspects or
persons on parole; surveillance technologies; illicit substance
detection systems; digital information systems; GPS/GIS technologies
(Global Positioning Systems/Geographic Information Systems); better
methods of DNA identification; improved fingerprinting technologies;
and, a less-than-lethal means to subdue suspects without injury.
The Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (OLETC)
located at Wheeling Jesuit College, Wheeling, WV, is actively involved
in commercializing law enforcement technology developed in the federal
laboratory system. The OLETC is charged with assessing the needs of law
enforcement agencies, approaching the research and development
community regarding the development of suitable new technologies and to
assist in prototyping and commercialization processes. Examples of
projects that the OLETC is currently working on with federal labs and
private companies include: a disabling net and launcher system that
deploys a lightweight net to capture escaping suspects, which is
primarily of interest to correctional institutions; and, a pepper spray
launcher/dispenser to be used in hostage situations.
Sniper Detection
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories of Livermore, CA, has
developed a portable anti-sniper detection device called the Lifeguard
System. It is said to have the capability of tracking bullets in flight
and displaying the flight track to an operator, who can then pinpoint
the source of fire within hundredths of a second and engage the sniper
with a variety of response devices.
A special camera is used to detect the gunfire; a computer then plots
the trajectory of each bullet fired and a positioner device (employing
a camera with telescopic lens and spotlight) points back at the sniper
and has the capability of firing back at the sniper with a lethal or
nonlethal projectile.
"We think the potential is there for Lifeguard to have a revolutionary
impact on crime prevention," said Tom Karr, head of the Livermore team
that developed the device. "Anybody who shoots at you from any
direction would be immediately located. The aggressor can no longer
hide."
Lifeguard's key components include a sensor that identifies a moving
bullet through its unique signals and a computer that processes the
signals into an image. During a recent demonstration, the equivalent of
an M-16 rifle was fired at a target. The sensor spotted the bullets,
while Lifeguard's video screen recreated each bullet's flight path back
to its source. A small red rectangle on the computer screen outlined
the area where the "sniper" stood.
Potential applications include attaching the device on police
helicopters, VIP protection details, use in high-crime neighborhoods,
and providing security at large gatherings.
Secures System
A $2 million grant from the Defense Department's Advanced Research
Projects Agency is funding the development of yet another gunfire
detection system. Called SECURES (System for the Effective Control of
Urban Environmental Security), it employs acoustic sensors to detect,
recognize and pinpoint the location of gunfire. Successful testing of
the system has reportedly been completed by the FBI and the
Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC.
SECURES' main component is a battery-powered two-square-inch device
that can be mounted on utility poles or buildings. The device "listens"
for and detects the unique audio characteristics of gunfire, and can
immediately notify local police. The developer, Alliant Techsystems
Inc., of Minneapolis, MN, adapted the system from its work in submarine
detection technology performed for the US Navy. The NIJ is reported to
be planning an independent test and evaluation of the technology.
Other Devices
The Department of Justice, through the NIJ, is helping to fund three
different technologies for the detection of concealed weapons and
contraband.
The first, a passive imaging technology development by Millitech
Corp., of South Deerfield, MA, is claimed to offer rapid and remote
detection of metallic and nonmetallic weapons, plastic explosives, and
drugs concealed under multiple layers of clothing without the need for
a direct physical search.
Passive imaging is based on existing natural emissions from the
objects, and is said to be harmless to the subject. An image of the
subject is reproduced on a monitor, based on the differences in
emissivity of the human body, compared to the emissivity of a metallic
object. A camera system, employing the concealed arms detection
technology and suitable for use from a police vehicle, is also under
development.
A second concealed arms detection system based on low-frequency
electromagnetic radiation is under development by the Raytheon Co. It
is said to have a low probability of false alarms and does not require
a subject to walk through a portal equipped with a magnetic sensor. Its
unobtrusive operational characteristics would not make a person under
surveillance aware of the monitoring.
And thirdly, the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), of
Idaho Falls, ID, is developing a scanner that can be used as a stand-
alone unit or directly incorporated into hallways and doorways of
buildings to detect ferro-magnetic objects. It utilizes an existing
technology used in mineral exploration, military navigation and
submarine detection, which is based on a passive sampling of the
earth's magnetic field. Local aberrations in the magnetic field
produced by ferro-magnetic objects such as guns and knives can be
measured and detected by sensitive magnetometers.
The NIJ's Law Enforcement Technology Center in Rome, NY, will be
funded to provide technical and engineering support for the management
of these concealed arms detection systems.
Other Projects
INEL has also developed a backseat air bag to control unruly suspects
in police cars. The air bag restraint is intended to curtail the
violent actions which sometimes occur when arrested persons are placed
in the back seats of police cars. The air bag restraint is intended to
reduce the seriousness of property damage to the vehicle, self-
inflicted injury to the transported person and assault on the officer.
The bag, which is contained in the vehicle's trunk, is activated by a
button on the dashboard and uses a low volume of air pressure to
inflate the bag and disable the suspect without injury or danger of
suffocation. It is designed for installation in existing patrol
vehicles with cages to allow continued use of current vehicle
resources.
INEL has designed a retractable spiked barrier strip for stopping
fleeing vehicles, as well. The strip can place its spikes in either the
active (vertical) or passive (horizontal) positions, allowing law
enforcement personnel to lay the unobtrusive-looking strip across a
road far in advance of the approach of a fleeing vehicle. No damage is
said to occur to passing vehicles until the spikes are activated, which
can be done at some distance.
Non-lethal Devices
Meanwhile, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of Oak Ridge, TN, is
reportedly working on less-than-lethal technologies to temporarily
disable fleeing or unruly suspects. One device is a thermal gun which
can raise a person's body temperature to 105 or 107 degrees, thereby
simulating a disabling fever.
Another project utilizes electromagnetics to induce a subject to go
into an epileptic fit. And a third device being developed by Oak Ridge
uses magnetic phosbeams to affect the retina of the eye to make a
subject groggy and disoriented, as if struck over the head.
A variety of non-lethal nets that can be hand-deployed or fired from
37mm or 40mm grenade launchers are being developed by Foster-Miller
Inc. of Waltham, MA. The anti-personnel system consists of three
versions: Sticky Net, a net containing a nontoxic adhesive coating
making escape nearly impossible; Snare Net, a personnel entanglement
net; and Sting Net, which employs a high-voltage pulse generator to
quickly immobilize armed combatants and other highly dangerous
individuals.
Airport travelers may soon have to undergo holographic imaging by
security personnel in which a computer-generated image of their bodies
will appear on a monitor screen. This technology can actually see
through clothing and show the contrast between the body and the
outlines of unnatural objects that the subject may be carrying. The
holographic imaging technology is under development by the Pacific
Northwest Lab of Richland, WA, at the request of the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA).
Captions
The Silver Shroud vehicle disabling net from Foster Miller Technology
Developers, shown being deployed on an automobile.
Millitech Corp. of South Deerfield, MA, is currently developing a
passive millimeter wave system for use in detecting concealed
contraband.
An air bag has been designed by the Idaho National Engineering
Laboratory of Idaho Falls, ID, for use in existing police vehicles that
can restrain an individual if he or she becomes violent. The device is
said to prevent self-injury and protect the vehicle and officer. The
developers add that the device does not pose a suffocation hazard, and
it can be quickly and easily inflated or deflated by an officer from
the front seat. The bag is said to be ready for field testing. (Photo
courtesy of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.)
Sticky Foam, an extremely tacky and tenacious material, can be used to
entangle and immobilize an individual as an alternative to the use of
deadly force by police. It is being developed by the Sandia National
Laboratories of Albuquerque, NM.
The Lifeguard sniper detection system, under development by the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories of Livermore, CA, can be
employed in urban settings to detect sources of gunfire.
