Device Helps Extend Long Arm of the Law

This high-tech police officer is only 7 inches high and weighs less than a pound but has the “eyes and ears of Superman” and can deploy officers to a crime scene within seconds.

In suburban Nassau County, the electronic police officer works as a companion to victims of serious crime who are likely to be victimized again.

The walkie-talkie-style device, called a caper unit, can alert police in less than a second. The wearer pushes a button to trigger a silent alarm at a central police post. A dispatcher then sends an officer.

The caper unit eliminates the need to call 911.

“It is the fastest thing out there,” said Sgt. Kenneth DeBoer, who developed the unit and heads the caper team, as part of the Bureau of Special Operations for the Nassau County Police Department.

“We have gotten rid of every possible delay. It has the eyes and ears of Superman,” he said.

Nassau County has used the system for six years, only recently disclosing its existence. It is the only department that has the unit so far, but several departments around the country have expressed interest in buying it.

It has not had a failure, police said.

In the 100 cases that it has been put to work, it has either stopped the crime or led to an arrest. Nassau County has 30 caper units and expects delivery on 250 more at a cost of $1,100 apiece.

In 1985, DeBoer, concerned with delays in the 911 system, developed a more fail-safe system. Using his concept, Motorola Inc. modified the familiar police walkie-talkie, and the caper unit was born.

A few months ago, a woman was brutally beaten by her husband, who promised to come back to kill her.

Detectives went to her house to instruct her and her 8-year-old son on the unit. “We told the boy, ‘If you see daddy, push this button,’ ” DeBoer said.

Ten minutes after police left, to their surprise, the woman’s caper alarm went off. “We went back, and as we pulled around the corner, we saw the husband climbing through the window,” DeBoer said. The woman’s son had seen his father in the back yard so he pushed the button, just as he was told.

“Seconds would have had him in the house and she would have been a victim again,” DeBoer said.

The caper has a 1-ounce transmitter, worn as a necklace or carried in a pocket, which trips a base unit that in turn relays the signal to police.

The unit is also equipped with other options such as an infrared heat detection capability that allows police, in their absence, to be like a fly on the wall. It has been used to pick up movement in a room, and signal the removal of money from a cash register, cars from a lot, and typewriters from an office building.

“We can have a mechanical police officer in the bedroom with you,” DeBoer said.

Police recently stopped a woman from being raped a second time. The victim was asleep, and the caper was on her night table.

“We knew within a second that someone had put a foot inside her room,” he said. Police responded and made an arrest.