New York, Jan 18 (IANS/EFE) The New York Police Department is testing a new portable device to detect concealed weapons or explosives, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday.

If all goes well, the technology, known as Terahertz Imaging Detection, will be installed in NYPD vehicles.

“This technology has shown a great deal of promise as a way of detecting weapons without a physical search,” Kelly said at the Police Foundation’s State of the NYPD breakfast.

The new equipment, developed in partnership with the Pentagon, is currently effective only at relatively short distances, but Kelly said he was confident the range could be extended to 25 meters.

Even with the new technology, he said, the NYPD has no plans to abandon its controversial stop-and-frisk tactic.

Nine of every 10 people subjected to stop-and-frisk are not charged with a crime, according to figures compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), which expressed concerns Tuesday about the new gun-detection equipment touted by Kelly.

“If the NYPD is moving forward with this, the public needs more information about this technology, how it works and the dangers it presents,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement.

“If technology like this worked as it was billed, New York City should see its stop and frisk rate drop by a half million people a year,” she said. “On the other hand, the ability to walk down the street free from a virtual police pat-down is a matter of privacy.”

–IANS/EFE
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