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Times online May 3, 2005
Police
Stunners kept under wraps
SUPPOSE you were engaged in a little light rioting or a spot of football hooliganism; you might expect a tap on the head with a police officer’s stick or, at worst, a few lungfuls of tear gas. But New Scientist (April 30) reports that new “less lethal” weapons could be coming our way. Such is the secrecy surrounding them, however, that there is no independent assessment of their safety.
The US justice department is funding research into three new devices designed to floor a man from across the street. The first is a radio-frequency weapon which, according to the limited information New Scientist has, is similar to one used by US Marines. The weapon fires a microwave beam that causes severe pain but no damage, according to its manufacturers.
The second, handy for “force protection, crowd control and access denial”, employs a semiconductor laser. “Its effects and effectiveness can only be guessed at,” says the journal.
The third type produces a “plasma flash bang” that disorientates a suspect and is similar to a military version, the pulsed energy projectile.
These “non-lethal directed- energy” weapons are not in use by law enforcers and the nearest equivalent is the Taser, which administers a 50,000-volt jolt and is in use despite safety concerns. New Scientist says that Amnesty International claims to have recorded 103 cases in which Taser victims later died, with “excited delirium” among the risk factors</HTML>
