UK Police Test 'Temporarily Blinding' LASER

esocid writes "Called the SMU 100 it costs £25,000 and sends out a three-meter 'wall of light' that leaves anyone caught in it briefly unable to see. Designed by a former Royal Marine Commando, it was originally developed for use against pirates in Somalia. While tasers and CS gas work well over short distances the laser is said to be effective at up to 500 meters (1,640ft). Being targeted by the beam has been compared to staring into the sun before being forced to turn away. Paul Kerr, managing director of Clyde-based Photonic Security Systems, which came up with the design, said 'If you can't look at something you can't attack it.'"

Comments

Reflection?

[ark1]

I'm sure someone will figure out a way to reflect (mirror?) back to the source.

Re:Reflection?

[Bowling Moses]

"I'm sure someone will figure out a way to reflect (mirror?) back to the source."

I guess this means mirrored sunglasses are going to make a comeback. Or did they already? I don't pay attention to fashion.

Re:What is with the UK and all this surveillance a

[cayenne8]

Let me guess....

Normal civilians are prohibited from owning and using these devices ....?

Re:Glasses?

[vlm]

Autodarkening welding helmet. Off the shelf, cheap, and unfortunately freaking huge. And hot, in the summer. I assume we'll still be rioting in 6 months, right?

I spec'd the autodarkening helm so you can see whats going on between blasts.

I'm assuming, having not read the article, that its very much like a "woodpecker jammer" in the RF world and a similar circuit, like the one in the helm, would defeat it.

For non RF guys, the control theory is your eyes iris responds to peak flux with say a 2 second RC constant, so you basically flash the crowd every second and their iris contracts to pinpoints even if the average illumination is nighttime.

Or maybe those heartless SOBs are just running right below permanent damage, and will just blame the victims if they end up blind. Yeah I'm guessing thats how it'll turn out instead. In that case a plain ole welding helm instead of the expensive auto-darkening helm will work.

The actual best defense is probably copper jacketed lead, but the cowards in the UK gave up their human right of self defense, so I guess they deserve what happens to them, no matter how bad it is, they asked for it.

Re:What is with the UK and all this surveillance a

[Anonymous Coward]

That article shows four fatalities in ten years. Four.

Nationwide.

Compare that with New York, where eight fatalities in one year is reported as a record low. And NY is one of the US's safer large cities nowadays - the numbers in Chicago or Los Angeles are way higher.

I defy you to even find any figures for nationwide police shootings in the USA.

Re:What is with the UK and all this surveillance a

[darkmeridian]

Why the hate for this comment when it is certainly true for the United States? We have Predator drones being deployed along the US-Mexico border to interdict smugglers. Rick Perry is calling for boots on the ground in addition to more drones. During the Occupy Wall Street protest, the LRAD acoustic cannon was deployed against protesters by the NYPD. Yes, a city police department deployed a military-grade weapon against civilians.