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"X-Ray Gun" for imperceptible searches
I would wonder if a jamming device (preferably area-effect with a
slowly randomly varying swathe of area, to avoid figuring out who was carrying
it) would be possible, or some variety of shielding (i.e., emitting waves
looking similar to flesh).
-Allen
> Direct Media
> NEW X-RAY GUN TRADES PRIVACY FOR SAFETY
> Copyright © 1996 Nando.net
> Copyright © 1996 The Associated Press
> SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Aug 12, 1996 09:47 a.m. EDT) -- The latest
> weapon against terrorism can see right through you.
> The Passive Millimeter Wave Imager can X-ray through clothing to "see"
> a concealed weapon, plastic explosives or drugs. A police officer can
> surreptitiously aim it into a crowd from as far away as 90 feet.
> The new X-ray gun is becoming a symbol for an unlikely alliance of
> civil libertarians and gun owners who fear the fight against crime and
> terrorism may be waged at the expense of personal freedoms.
> "I'm incredibly concerned," said John Henry Hingson, a past president
> of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, meeting here
> this past week. "The entire nation could become a victim of illegal
> searches and seizures and the law is powerless to protect them from
> these police abuses."
> But in these nervous times following the the crash of TWA Fight 800
> and bombings at the Olympics, Oklahoma City and the World Trade
> Center, many Americans are now willing to trade some of their privacy
> and civil liberties for greater security.
> A poll last week by the Los Angeles Times found that a majority of
> people -- 58 percent -- said they would curtail some civil liberties
> if it would help thwart terrorism. Thirteen percent said it would
> depend on what rights were at stake. The poll didn't ask people to
> single out any rights.
> The Clinton administration has proposed increased wiretapping and
> other anti-terrorism steps, and is doling out research grants for
> cutting edge anti-crime technology that once may have been intended
> for only military use.
[...]
> Two models are being developed of the Passive Millimeter Wave Imager,
> a creation of Massachusetts-based Millimetrix Corp.
> The larger one, about the size of a shoebox, is mounted on a patrol
> car and pointed at the unsuspecting person. The gadget doesn't send
> out X-rays; instead, it picks up electromagnetic waves emitted by
> human flesh.
> Anything that stands in the way of those waves -- like a gun -- or
> anything that emits weaker waves -- like a bag of cocaine or a plastic
> explosive -- will show up on a little screen in the patrol car.
> Clothes emit no waves. Neither do walls, allowing the device to be
> used from even outside a room.
> A second model is a smaller, battery-operated version that an officer
> can operate by hand, like a radar gun.
> Millimetrix hopes to field test the larger model soon at a police
> agency.
> Hingson argues the device runs roughshod over bans against illegal
> searches and seizures. The law says police can stop and frisk a person
> only when an officer has a "reasonable suspicion" the person is armed
> or involved in a crime.
> Millimetrix points out that while the imager can see through clothing,
> it still leaves people some privacy. The device's display screen, the
> company says, "does not reveal intimate anatomical details of the
> person."
> Chip Walker, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, noted that
> devices like the imager threaten the legal rights of people in 31
> states who are allowed to carry concealed weapons with proper
> licenses.
> "We certainly support efforts to disarm criminals, but we need to be
> careful that we're not painting with too broad a brush here," he said.
> Walker said that as troubling as terrorism is, people may be playing
> into terrorists' hands by giving up their privacy.
> "One of the broader issues is that if we start giving up certain civil
> liberties, that essentially means that the terrorists are starting to
> accomplish one of their goals," he said.