Now police can frisk us ... from 20 yards away
POLICE will soon be using a new high-tech scanner that can ‘frisk’ suspects without them knowing.
Hailed as a breakthrough in the war on gun and knife crime, the portable device can detect a concealed weapon through a suspect’s clothing – from a distance of up to 20 yards.
The device can check groups of people or even whole crowds as they arrive at concert venues or sporting events, without the need for timeconsuming searches by hand.
Called Sword, the system uses the same technology as an airport scanner but shrunk to the size of an iPad or tablet.
Created by a Californian tech entrepreneur, it is due to be showcased at a Home Office security and policing exhibition in Hampshire this week.
But it is understood that at least one UK police force has already placed an order.
Sword fires harmless electromagnetic radiation at people walking past it. Linked to a databank, it can recognise the outline of knives and guns and a positive match will trigger an alert to the police, showing them what is being carried and where it is hidden.
A 10in screen shows no intrusive images until it spots a weapon.
Facial recognition databanks can then be used to identify an offender who has no idea he has been ‘searched’ from a safe distance. Police can then arrest the suspect or perform a targeted stop-and-search.
The device was developed by former intelligence operative Barry Oberholzer, 36, who was inspired by the Bataclan terror attack in Paris in 2015 to find a way to turn the tables on those plotting mass killings.
The system has generated £5.4million worth of worldwide sales with another £27.2 million in the pipeline.
The machine is designed to be able to ‘learn’ new shapes and will soon also be able to detect explosives.
Doug Sear, sales director of UK distributor Emergency Protection, said: ‘This will help break down the suspicion around stop-and-search because it takes the guesswork out of it.
‘It’s not looking for a type of person, it just sees the weapon.’
Graeme Pearson, security lecturer at Glasgow University and former head of the Scottish Crime & Drug Enforcement Agency, said: ‘In theory, this could remove a great deal of heat around the issue of human rights in stop-and-search.
‘And many criminals will be unnerved and deterred from carrying weapons if they know that something that is effective and hard to spot is being used by the police.’