Million-$ gear collects dust
A MACHINE touted for its ability to detect guns beneath layers of clothing has been gathering dust for more than four years — and the NYPD said it has no plans to ever use it, the Daily News has learned.
The T-Ray machine costs millions of dollars, but police Monday were quick to point out that the city was given the machine by the federal government and did not spend a dime on it.
In January 2012, then-Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, in a speech before the well-heeled movers and shakers gathered at the Police Foundation’s annual State of the NYPD breakfast, said the T-Ray machine could detect terahertz radiation emitted by a person’s body.
Because the radiation waves can’t travel through metal, a concealed gun could be detected from the image captured on the machine’s lens.
By early 2013, the department had the T-Ray, which the NYPD at the time described as a “multimillion” dollar device — though it was given to police by the Department of Defense.
But civil libertarians raised privacy concerns and worried whether other items might be mistaken for a gun, leading to bad arrests.
The NYPD said that after an internal review, it was decided the machine would cause more problems than it was worth.
“It just wouldn’t work in New York City,” a source said. “The efficacy was questionable.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union said police made the right decision.
“It’s no surprise that they are abandoning this idea,” said Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU’s associate legal director. “Using a machine to search people just walking down the street would be a gross invasion of privacy and plainly unconstitutional.”
Jonathan Corbett, whose blog is dedicated to civil rights issues, sued the NYPD over use of the machine, although a judge halted the suit because police never actually used it.
Corbett said that while the technology is similar to what is used at airports, air travelers agree to such a search. Someone on a streetcorner is being scanned “essentially without any sort of consent.”
The Department of Defense on Monday was not able to provide any information about the exact price of the machine, or whether it would take the machine back since the NYPD is not using it.