BC cops get ‘directed acoustic device’
“What makes the LRAD product unique is its ability to transmit your message with exceptional voice intelligibility and tonal clarity in a highly directional beam, even with significant ambient noise,” says the text accompanying the pic on the right.
It goes on:
“The directionality of the LRAD device reduces the risk of exposing nearby personnel or peripheral bystanders to harmful audio levels.”
LRAD is short for long-range hailing and warning, directed acoustic device.
Clearly, “reduces the risk” of exposure to “to harmful audio levels” means the risk does exist.
The quotes come from the site of LRAD maker the American Technology Corporation and now it seems LRAD is coming to British Columbia and, “Vancouver police won’t rule out using a new crowd-control device as a weapon capable of emitting loud, painful blasts of sound that are potentially damaging to hearing,” says the Vancouver Sun, continuing:
“But police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton insisted Tuesday that the Long Range Acoustical Device was bought principally to replace ‘antiquated hand-held megaphones’ as a tool to communicate in emergencies and for crowd control.
Asked whether police would ever use it for anything more than communication, Houghton said, “We can’t rule out anything.”
In another story, “Aside from what happened in Pittsburgh at the G-20 conference a month ago, it was only repressive regimes in the Third World that were making use of this,” the Canadian Press has Robert Holmes, president of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, saying.
It goes on, “The long-range acoustic device, or LRAD, emits sound waves strong enough to cause intense pain, damaged hearing and temporarily disrupted vision. There has been no safety testing of the weapon in Canada, Holmes said.”
And the story has Houghton protesting the LRAD is “nothing new since the force has long had access to noise-emitting devices that can subdue crowds”.
They’re “the sirens on our police cars,” he said.
With a Taser in one hand and an LRAD in the other …
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