“Stop and Frisk” Will Soon Be “Stop and Body Scan”
- NYDN
- REAL subtle, guys.
Or, “slowly drive by and surreptitiously body scan,” to be slightly more accurate. Ray Kelly announced today that the NYPD is testing out new technology that scans for disruptions in body heat (or terahertz), which would hypothetically allow officers to check citizens for concealed weapons without a pesky, invasive-in-a-different way pat-down.
“We took delivery of it last week,” Kelly explained, noting that “If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation, for example a weapon, the device will highlight that object.” They released images of an officer being scanned to reveal a weapon in his person, and are apparently working to make the technology “portable,” in hopes of using it in police vehicles to monitor possible offenders on the street.
“We still have a number of trials to run before we can determine how best to deploy this technology. We’re also talking to our legal staff about this,” Kelly said. Which makes sense, though I seriously doubt that the NYPD will have too much trouble getting the go-ahead to point weird body scanners at citizens to their hearts’ content. I also seriously doubt this vehicular scanning will end in anything significant other than a lot of clunky “Van-y Cam” puns. New York Post, I await your response.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.