Mobile scanner could detect guns

Source: BBC

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

British scientists have developed a portable microwave scanner to help police identify individuals carrying concealed guns and knives.

It is small enough to be used covertly, at some distance from the subject.

The device is based around microwave radar technology and is designed to pick up the "reflections" of weapons concealed beneath clothing.

Some officials believe technology like this could help increase the effectiveness of stop-and-search.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8089959.stm

With me all the time.

Got stopped by the Capitol Police once while walking to the Botanic Garden to volunteer. Was asked to "turn around slowly"...

My shears are carried in a holster on my belt. I learned to carry them in my bag any time I'm near a high security area. Common sense, I guess.

:popcorn:

That's what happens when a people submit to government as the source of all rights as opposed to the U.S. where many of us fight to protect inalienable/unalienable or pre-existing rights that do not depend upon government or a constitution for legitimacy.

:spank:

Unless you want too!! ROFLMAO!

:hi:

The same would hold for public buildings where weapons are excluded by law.

The Supreme Court has ruled things like Infrared analysis of your house to determine if maybe you have a grow op, is not sufficient evidence for a warrant, for instance.

You generally willingly submit to a search as part of the requirement to fly. Being searched when you are walking down the street has no "consent" component.

Personally, I would like to see people press their 4th amendment rights a bit more, but technically commercial air travel is not a right, unless someone gets really creative with the right of 'assembly'.

Then again, I don't want dirtbags getting on planes with weapons... so.. Technology kind of demands a new balance here, that we have not yet reached.

Or take some other form of transportation. Airlines are not public transit.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that's 'right', but it is the way it is, at least for now.

You can read about them here:

http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-articles/when-police-frisk-you.html

In other contexts, it's perfectly legal- and I think appropriate.

Ordinary civil rights protections don't apply when the object of the policy is one of "those people." Look at all the DU threads endorsing Alberto Gonzales' attempt to revoke the gun rights of people the Bush adminstration blacklisted.

But yes, in my opinion, use of millimeter wave scanners or backscatter X-ray without reasonable indication that the person is actually committing a crime would constitute an unlawful search. Of course, in places like NYC, blanket searches under the justification of "terrah" or "he has a bulge on his belt" are already more or less the norm, but one can hope the ACLU would be all over this.

But the UK is a bit further down that road than we are (yet, anyway).

Our entire legal system hinges on his vote. Even our political
system hangs on his balance.

Tesha

Nobody wants their balls surreptitiously fried.

j/k

I was just pleased to see you. :)

Someone using a backscatter X-ray scanner, for example, can not only search your beltline and pockets, but can tell whether or not you are circumcised.

Not to mention doors to university classroom buildings.