Device Keeps Police Out of Line of Fire

Clutching the remote control with both hands, Lt. Sid Heal stared into the video monitor and squeezed the dual triggers six times, sending bullets through the air and a series of tremendous booms across the small canyon.

Moments later, checking the results on a target nearly 100 yards away, Heal was impressed. All of the holes were in the innermost ring.

“That’s dead on, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “If I wanted to take my time, I could have put them all in the same hole.”

Heal, who works for the Special Projects Group of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, joined officers from about half a dozen Southern California law-enforcement agencies Thursday at the Pitchess Detention Center’s Special Enforcement Bureau Range. Their assignment: to assess a new robotic weapon that its inventor, Graham Hawkes, says represents a new wave of crime-fighting technology.

The star of the show was the TRAP T-2, a remotely operated device with high-powered weapon and surveillance cameras. It was designed to increase the safety of both the police and the public in incidents like the North Hollywood bank shootout, said Hawkes.

The Telepresent Rapid Aiming Platform or TRAP includes two cameras--one with a wide-angle lens and one with a narrow view, the latter with cross hairs to aim the weapon. The entire device is operated from a remote location, enabling the user to stay out of the line of fire.

The weapon/surveillance device and the remote control are attached by electric cables. An aiming system controlled by two small motors guarantees that T-2, which can accommodate a variety of rifles, always fires with deadly accuracy.

“There is nothing like this out there . . . The system is far more accurate than the officer can be under the stress of a critical situation,” said Mike Hanley, president of Precision Remotes Inc., the Point Richmond, Calif., company that makes T-2.

“Say an officer is confronted by a disturbed person with a gun,” he said. “It removes the officer from danger, which translates into better decision-making and a situation where you are less likely to have to use force.”

“There’s no squeezing the trigger and wondering where the shot is going,” said Hawkes, a former submarine engineer who designed T-2. “It’s going to go right in the cross hairs.”

Besides law-enforcement agencies, Precision Remotes has recently demonstrated T-2 for the military and private security agencies.

Although the officers at Pitchess were impressed by the capabilities of T-2, most said they were far from convinced that the $49,000 system would be appropriate for their agencies.

Heal said that he would like to see the weapon tested in a variety of weather and terrain conditions to assess its durability, and he questioned whether, at about 35 pounds, T-2 weighed too much to be easily deployed.

“It’s applicable to an urban police mission, but it’s heavy and it’s expensive,” Heal said. “I’d rather rent it when I need it instead of having this investment lying around that’s not going to be used very often.”

Kris Allshouse of the Long Beach Police Department’s SWAT team, said that while his department might not elect to purchase T-2, it was important for the officers to be aware of the latest technology.