The tools are designed to decrease risks incurred by police who must enter premises to flush out suspects.

It all amounts to a high-tech strip search.

Barry Steinhardt American Civil Liberties Union

The devices have netted the interest of law enforcement and the ire of some civil rights advocates. And one of them, which uses a new and controversial type of radar wave known as ultra-wide band or UWB, must face the scrutiny of Federal Communications Commission regulators.

"We hope to have our device commercialized in about a year," said Gene Greneker, a research scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who is developing a device dubbed the Radar Flashlight.

Funded by the National Institute of Justice, a division of the Department of Justice, Greneker's flashlight uses a 16-degree radar beam and a customized signal processor to identify human presence through partitions up to 8 inches thick.

The device, which can detect respiration and tiny movements, was originally designed by the military for paramedics to check remotely the vital signs of solider wounded in heated conflict zones.

Greneker said the current version, which is under modification, has a pistol-grip handle and automatically tells the user how close it must be to a wall to get a reading. It then shoots out electromagnetic energy, finds the return signal, reads it and display the results on a panel. As the person on the other side breaths, the display reflects the movements.

Greneker is tweaking the gun so that it can be placed on a tripod twenty feet from a wall and be operated by remote control.

Once commercialized, Greneker said the device should sell for $1,000 to $1,500 per device.

"Police departments need affordable tools," he said.

"The National Institute of Justice is putting what few dollars it has into technologies they hope will save lives,'" said Bill Deck of the National Law Enforcement Corrections Technology Center, a nation-wide non-profit group that promotes technological tools for police. "They are making these types of devices a priority because they want to give officers some sort of advanced warning."

Time Domain, a company based in Huntsville, Ala., has created a similar device called the RV2000. The system uses so-called ultra-wideband radar that works by shooting out short bursts of energy -- 5 million per second -- that are capable of moving unhampered through most materials including reinforced concrete and wood. Based on the movement of the energy, the device can spot a person at a distance of less than 10 feet.

But critics of ultra-wide band, which is a much sought-after technology by many communications companies, claim it interferes with transmissions of the Global Positioning System. The FCC is currently considering its position on UWB technologies but in 1999 gave Time Domain a waiver to sell 2,500 radar devices to police for testing.

The company provided a limited number of police departments with a prototype and has received positive responses, Glenn Morris, Time Domain's director of radar operators, told United Press International in a telephone interview. Morris said the device has also proven capable of detecting the slightest movements of earthquake victims buried 11 feet under rubble.

"This is yet another example of the way in which technology gives law enforcement super human powers," said Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "That requires us to reexamine under what standards law enforcement can search us. We think uses of this kind should be based on a warrant and probable cause that someone committed a crime."

He said such devices are just one in a host of technologies being used by law enforcement from thermal imaging to video cameras to low dose X-rays.

"It all amounts to a high-tech strip search," he said.

Defense contractor Raytheon is reportedly developing a similar system capable of spotting a fugitive from 100 feet away.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International

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