- Do you prefer your police officers to be armed with a
gun or a good old-fashioned truncheon or night stick? Or perhaps something
in between: say a radio-frequency stun weapon, or a semiconductor laser
that can bring down a man from across the street?
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- Such "less lethal" weapons are closer to reality
than many people realise. New Scientist has learned that the research arm
of the US justice department, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is
funding research into three such devices, all of which are intended to
be used by the nation's police forces to bring down suspects and control
crowds. In theory they should be less harmful to both their intended targets
and bystanders than existing weapons like tear gas and rubber bullets.
But such is the secrecy shrouding the new weapons that it is impossible
for independent outsiders to judge.
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- In a statement given to New Scientist, the NIJ has provided
a limited description of all three devices. The first is a radio-frequency
weapon being developed by Raytheon at Palo Alto, California, which appears
to be based on a similar concept to the Active Denial System weapon that
Raytheon developed for the US marines in 2001. The military version is
designed to heat people's skin with a 95-gigahertz microwave beam (New
Scientist, 27 October 2001, p 26). With a range of 600 metres, it causes
severe pain but, according to Raytheon, no damage. The NIJ has contracted
the company to build a prototype suitable for use by police forces. Because
it will be portable, it will presumably use less power and work over a
shorter range.
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- The second device is described by the NIJ as "the
first man-portable heat compliance weapon of its kind". It uses a
semiconductor laser for "force protection, crowd control, and access
denial". Though the Air Force Research Laboratory in Kirtland, New
Mexico, has been contracted to produce a test-bed system, there is no known
weapon, military or otherwise, that appears to work this way. Its effects
and effectiveness can only be guessed at.
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- Further clues to the nature of these two devices can
be gleaned from a November 2004 report produced by the NIJ's research division.
In it, Joe Cecconi of the NIJ described a possible directed-energy prototype
weapon as being shotgun-sized, producing an area of intense heat 15 centimetres
in diameter at a range of 16 metres, with a magazine capable of delivering
12 shots each of less than a second. The NIJ would not confirm or deny
whether this was a description of either the radio-frequency or the heat
weapon.
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- A third type of less-lethal weapon commissioned by the
NIJ is a laser which produces a "plasma flash bang" at the point
of impact, stunning and disorienting the victim. This is similar to the
Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP) system developed for the US marines (New
Scientist, 5 March, p 8). The military system uses a chemical laser and
weighs around 200 kilograms. The NIJ has commissioned Sterling Photonics
of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to produce a "technology platform"
for a police version that will be electrically powered and portable.
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- All three research programmes are due to end in September.
But the information provided by the NIJ has so little detail about factors
such as wavelengths and power levels that it is impossible to judge how
safe the new weapons might be. There is no publicly available information
on the effects of the Active Denial System weapon or plasma flash bangs.
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- As yet there are no non-lethal directed-energy weapons
in use by law enforcers. The closest comparable devices are police electric-shock
weapons, the best known of which is the Taser. This weapon was introduced
in the 1970s, and became popular with police forces in the US during the
1990s. Critics have recently alleged that Tasers have caused the deaths
of a number of suspects, and are prone to abuse (see "Taser troubles"),
raising concerns that this pattern could be repeated with the new weapons.
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- Neil Davison of the Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research
Project at the University of Bradford, UK, says more information about
these weapons needs to be made public. "The non-lethal weapons community
is always complaining about bad treatment in the media. But without more
transparency about what is being developed, and what the effects on people
are, suspicion is bound to be created." He also points out that as
these weapons may not leave any identifiable traces, allegations of abuse
will be hard to prove.
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- He also notes there has long been a demand for a capability
to turn the power output of these weapons up or down. "Some of these
weapons may have a 'lethal' setting," he warns.
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- Mike McBride, editor of the authoritative Jane's Police
and Security Equipment journal, says: "Until these systems have proven
to be safer than existing systems - baton rounds, Tasers, tear gas - there
is little likelihood of them being deployed operationally." From issue
2497 of New Scientist magazine, 30 April 2005, page 23 Taser troubles
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- THE Taser is fast becoming the non-lethal weapon of choice
for police forces in the US and the UK despite widespread concerns about
its safety.
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- The hand-held weapon fires barbed darts connected to
a power source that delivers a debilitating 50,000-volt jolt. A person
who has been hit momentarily loses control of their muscles, and collapses
instantly.
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- Many police officers have welcomed the weapon as an alternative
to lethal firearms. But Amnesty International this month said it had catalogued
103 cases in which the targeted person has later died. Calling for "an
independent, comprehensive medical study" into Taser safety, Amnesty
listed drug intoxication, pre-existing heart conditions and "excited
delirium" as serious risk factors in Taser-related deaths.
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- Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona, which makes
the weapon, says its tests and the weapon's use in the field show it to
be safe.
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- Tests on the effect of Taser shocks on the hearts of
anaesthetised pigs due to begin this month have also been criticised by
animal rights groups as cruel, and not representative of the effects on
humans.
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- http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624975.800
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