The NYPD is developing body scanners which will detect concealed weapons on the streets. The technology is still years away but it is welcome news to citizens of New York.
According to NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the new technology will be mounted on police cars on the streets. It will detect radiation emitted from a person’s body through any fabric or packaging except metal. The images will reveal the outline of the gun underneath the person’s clothing.
The device has been in development for three years, and police won’t need a search warrant once the devices are employed. Currently it can scan a person from three to four feet away. But Kelly hopes to increase the capability to 25 feet.
Civil rights watchdogs are already gearing up for a battle to protect civil liberties.
In a statement on Tuesday, NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said she finds the idea “both intriguing and worrisome.”
“On the one hand, if technology like this worked as it was billed, New York City should see its stop-and-frisk rate drop by a half-million people a year. On the other hand, the ability to walk down the street free from a virtual police pat-down is a matter of privacy,” she said. Source
