Chris Obfer reports:
Police in New York City are trying to develop something like x-ray vision, raising questions about the legal expectation for privacy in public places.
The NYPD recently announced that it’s working on a mobile scanner designed to detect concealed weapons on people from up to 75 feet away. The department won’t say when the devices might hit the street or how much they will cost, but Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has already praised them as “a cutting-edge effort to deter gun violence.”
[…]
“There are serious Fourth Amendment problems raised by the use of this technology,” says Michael Price, counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program. “The idea that police could mount a scanner on a car and take images of everyone within a certain range is troubling.”
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