By TAMER EL-GHOBASHY WSJ.com
The New York Police Department is testing a new device it says can detect firearms concealed beneath layers of clothing, a high-tech crime-fighting tool seemingly torn from the pages of science fiction.
The so-called T-Ray machine detects terahertz radiation, a high-frequency electromagnetic natural energy that is emitted by people and can penetrate many materials, including clothing.
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NYPD
The T-Ray machine.
"If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation, for example a weapon, the device will highlight that object," said Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who described the device Wednesday in a speech at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
News of the device prompted concerns from privacy advocates, though they also saw a potential benefit: It might render unnecessary the legally disputed police policy of stopping and frisking people who haven't been first identified as suspects in crimes.
In an image displayed by Mr. Kelly, the T-Ray scanner highlighted the body of a plainclothes officer in neon green—with a gun clearly visible as a black shape. The image was captured with the officer standing about 30 feet away. Enlarge Image NYPD An image captured with a T-Ray scanner of a plainclothes officer in neon green?with a gun clearly visible as a black shape. "You get a sense of why we're so hopeful about this tool," Mr. Kelly told the audience, which was mostly members of the New York City Police Foundation, a nonprofit group that raises money for the department. Another photo showed the machine, tripod-mounted and about the size of an old-style projection television and housed in blue plastic. Officials said in its current form, the machine could be mounted on a truck and deployed to sites identified as prone to gun violence. Mr. Kelly said the department had been working with a security-and-surveillance systems manufacturer based in Britain, along with the London Metropolitan Police, to develop the device. The NYPD received its machine last week, he said. Representatives of the company, Digital Barriers, DGB.LN 0.00% could not be reached for comment. The program is being paid for by the U.S. Department of Defense, said Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD. Mr. Browne described the machine as a "multimillion" dollar device but wouldn't specify its cost. Mr. Browne said the police aimed to get the T-Ray technology in a device small enough to carry on an officer's gun belt. The police provided no timetable for when any version of the device would be deployed. Last month, the California Institute of Technology developed a terahertz microchip, raising the possibility the technology could one day be packed into hand-held devices.
As part of the Bloomberg administration's stance against the flow of illegal weapons into the city, Mr. Kelly has promoted the seizure of guns as a primary reason New York City's murder rate reached record lows this decade. He said on Wednesday that since 2002, 800 illegal guns had been taken off the street. Toward that end, the NYPD has employed its stop-and-frisk policy, which has been the target of legal challenges and assailed by critics as discriminatory for targeting minorities overwhelmingly. Critics said the prospect of a no-hands T-Ray search raised general privacy concerns and fears over so-called false positives—where an object on a person's body could be misread to be a weapon. "Any technology that allows police to peer into a person's body or possessions raises a lot of questions...," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in an email. "But to the extent that this technology reduces the abuse of stop-and-frisk that harms hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers every year, we're intrigued by the possibilities." Mr. Kelly said the department was working with its lawyers to assess "how we can utilize [the new machine] and how we can deploy it" in light of due-process protections under the U.S. Constitution and to guard against possible litigation that could arise from its use. Separately, Mr. Kelly said that a pilot program in which the NYPD videotaped interrogations of suspects in felony assaults has been expanded to include sex crimes and murders. He said 23 out of a targeted 61 department facilities have been equipped with the cameras and lighting to implement the program. Write to Tamer El-Ghobashy at tamer.el-ghobashy@wsj.com
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| A T-Ray Machine |
In an image displayed by Mr. Kelly, the T-Ray scanner highlighted the body of a plainclothes officer in neon green—with a gun clearly visible as a black shape. The image was captured with the officer standing about 30 feet away. Enlarge Image NYPD An image captured with a T-Ray scanner of a plainclothes officer in neon green?with a gun clearly visible as a black shape. "You get a sense of why we're so hopeful about this tool," Mr. Kelly told the audience, which was mostly members of the New York City Police Foundation, a nonprofit group that raises money for the department. Another photo showed the machine, tripod-mounted and about the size of an old-style projection television and housed in blue plastic. Officials said in its current form, the machine could be mounted on a truck and deployed to sites identified as prone to gun violence. Mr. Kelly said the department had been working with a security-and-surveillance systems manufacturer based in Britain, along with the London Metropolitan Police, to develop the device. The NYPD received its machine last week, he said. Representatives of the company, Digital Barriers, DGB.LN 0.00% could not be reached for comment. The program is being paid for by the U.S. Department of Defense, said Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD. Mr. Browne described the machine as a "multimillion" dollar device but wouldn't specify its cost. Mr. Browne said the police aimed to get the T-Ray technology in a device small enough to carry on an officer's gun belt. The police provided no timetable for when any version of the device would be deployed. Last month, the California Institute of Technology developed a terahertz microchip, raising the possibility the technology could one day be packed into hand-held devices.
As part of the Bloomberg administration's stance against the flow of illegal weapons into the city, Mr. Kelly has promoted the seizure of guns as a primary reason New York City's murder rate reached record lows this decade. He said on Wednesday that since 2002, 800 illegal guns had been taken off the street. Toward that end, the NYPD has employed its stop-and-frisk policy, which has been the target of legal challenges and assailed by critics as discriminatory for targeting minorities overwhelmingly. Critics said the prospect of a no-hands T-Ray search raised general privacy concerns and fears over so-called false positives—where an object on a person's body could be misread to be a weapon. "Any technology that allows police to peer into a person's body or possessions raises a lot of questions...," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in an email. "But to the extent that this technology reduces the abuse of stop-and-frisk that harms hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers every year, we're intrigued by the possibilities." Mr. Kelly said the department was working with its lawyers to assess "how we can utilize [the new machine] and how we can deploy it" in light of due-process protections under the U.S. Constitution and to guard against possible litigation that could arise from its use. Separately, Mr. Kelly said that a pilot program in which the NYPD videotaped interrogations of suspects in felony assaults has been expanded to include sex crimes and murders. He said 23 out of a targeted 61 department facilities have been equipped with the cameras and lighting to implement the program. Write to Tamer El-Ghobashy at tamer.el-ghobashy@wsj.com
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