The 4-feet-tall weapon, which looks like a cross between a robot and a satellite radar, will be mounted on the ceiling and can swivel. The Los Angeles County sheriff’s plans to put the new type of weapon in one of its jails is taking heat. Opponents say use of the device, which transmits a high-intensity beam of intense heat to unruly inmates, is ripe for abuse and could cause serious injuries. (AP / Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)
Associated Press | Aug 27, 2010
LA authorities plan to use heat-beam ray in jail
By THOMAS WATKINS
LOS ANGELES — A device designed to control unruly inmates by blasting them with a beam of intense energy that causes a burning sensation is drawing heat from civil rights groups who fear it could cause serious injury and is “tantamount to torture.”
The mechanism, known as an “Assault Intervention Device,” is a stripped-down version of a military gadget that sends highly focused beams of energy at people and makes them feel as though they are burning. The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department plans to install the device by Labor Day, making it the first time in the world the technology has been deployed in such a capacity.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized Sheriff Lee Baca’s decision in a letter sent Thursday, saying that the technology amounts to a ray gun at a county jail. The 4-feet-tall weapon, which looks like a cross between a robot and a satellite radar, will be mounted on the ceiling and can swivel.
It is remotely controlled by an operator in a separate room who lines up targets with a joystick.
The ACLU said the weapon was “tantamount to torture,” noting that early military versions resulted in five airmen suffering lasting burns. It requested a meeting with Baca, who declined the invitation.
The sheriff unveiled the device last week and said it would be installed in the dorm of a jail in north Los Angeles County. It is far less powerful than the military version and has various safeguards in place, including a three-second limit to each beam of heat.
The natural response when blasted — to leap out the way — would be helpful in bringing difficult inmates under control and quelling riots, the sheriff said.
But the sheriff was creating a dangerous environment with “a weapon that can cause serious injury that is being put into a place where there is a long history of abuse of prisoners,” ACLU attorney Peter Eliasberg said. “That is a toxic combination.”
Cmdr. Bob Osborne, who oversees technology for the sheriff’s department, said the concerns were unfounded. He said he stood in front of the beam more than 50 times and that it never caused any sort of lasting damage.
“The neat thing with this device is you experience pain but you are not injured by it,” Osborne said. “It doesn’t injure your skin, the beam doesn’t have the power to do that.”
He said the device would be a more humane way of dealing with jail disturbances. Unlike hitting inmates with batons or deploying tear gas, a shot from the beam has no aftereffects, he said.
The device was made specifically for the sheriff’s department by Raytheon Missile Systems. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said its $750,000 cost was paid for by a Department of Justice technology grant.
After a six-month trial, the sheriff will determine if the device is effective and if it should be deployed in other jails.
“When this pilot program is done, the realistic hope is it will accomplish not only what the sheriff’s department wants but what the ACLU wants, which is to save lives harmlessly,” Whitmore said.
A Raytheon spokesman on Thursday referred questions to the sheriff’s department, but provided a fact sheet describing how the device only penetrates skin to a depth 1/64 of an inch. The military’s version of the device can shoot a beam more than 800 feet but the sheriff’s department model has a maximum range of 85 feet.
Angelica Arias, an attorney with the county’s Office of Independent Review, which monitors the sheriff’s department, said only deputies with special training would be able to use the device and a video would be automatically recorded each time it is operated.
“Based on the level of scrutiny the department has put on itself and its training, it doesn’t appear there would be too much wiggle room for misuse,” Arias said.
Aftermath News 
This has to do with the “Ray Gun” that is going to be used at the L.A. County Jail. When you give people this kind of power it is going to be abused. If this were done to the prisoners at Gitmo there would be world wide outrage. I am a “Targeted Individual”. ACOUSTIC & DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS ARE USED FOR STALKING & TORTURE BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ON ITS OWN PEOPLE! The pain & sleep deprivation are much worse. The pain is so bad at times that i can hardly breathe. They can literally take your breath away. They can make you throw up in a matter of seconds. They can cause any odor. They effect all your senses. They can see, hear, and go right through concrete, through multiple layers of concrete and be aimed with absolute pin point accuracy & control. They can see & get inside your body, again with pin point accuracy & control. I even bought a lead lined blanket and they go right through that like it’s nothing. What this technology can do is magic. In the hands of these people it is evil, pure evil. This makes George Orwell’s “1984” look like a comedy. All the good this technology could do and this is how it’s used by our government. How can this happen in this country? Why? Who’s really in charge of this country? Who in our government is making these decisions & why? These abuses by our government first started in the 1950’s with J. Edgar Hoover & Allan Dulles. The original creator of this technology is Nikola Tesla. These weapons were developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Head of r&d for these weapons at Los Alamos is Col. J. Douglas Beason. Our troops fighting & dieing in the mideast can’t even have these weapons but corrupt law enforcement can. And they can use those weapons on whoever they’re paid off to. These weapons have been used on me from apts.#2-1503 & 2-1703 every single day for at least the past 5-6 years and off & on for about 20 years. These weapons were also used on me at the N. Palm Beach Jail, Palm Beach County Jail, and at Oakwood Center where i was Baker Acted for calling 911 to report these weapons being used on me. I knew the police would do nothing to help, that they were involved in this all along. So i video taped the 911 calls and the Riviera Beach Police at my home taking me in handcuffs & in my underwear to Oakwood Center. I was held at Oakwood Center for four and a half days and forceably injected with drugs. I just want to repeat, i was Baker Acted for calling 911. I was clearly no threat to anyone. I have it all on video. I want to add this about Oakwood Center. Everyone at Oakwood Center knew these weapons were used on me there and that law enforcement were the ones involved in it. Evidence that i gave to the N. Palm Beach Police was tampered with and my attorney at the time Jan Peter Weiss and my judge at trial Judge William Berger knew about it. Judge Berger & Mr. Weiss knew all along what was being done to me. Judge Karen Miller was also aware of all of this. My crime was growing my own marijuana for stomach pain which as it turns out was caused by these people all along. I have evidence. I can prove much if not all of this. I have over 190 hours of video along with four and a half hours of audio. Part of the video shows a pulsing under my left eye which is a residual effect of a Acoustic or Directed Energy Weapon having been used on me. I have Mr. Weiss on audio contradicting what he wrote in his response to the Florida Bar. The rest of the audio contains law enforcement, doctors that i was forced to see during my year of probation for nothing more than what i’m saying here, and my probation officer Phil Wall. I have all my medical records that were given to me. To this day i still haven’t been able to get my medical records from the Palm Beach County Jail, Dr. Armstrong & Deputy Purcell. The number of people in just this area alone that know or are involved in this is in the thousands. That’s no exaggeration either. I fear for my life here. If anything happens to me here it will have been murder. All law enforcement & elected officials know about this. Law enforcement & that fire dept. on Singer Island are directly involved in all of this. What do you do when law enforcement & elected officials are nothing but criminals? Where do you go for help then? If our government doesn’t protect our rights who will? If our government takes our rights away who will get them back? The abuse of this technology will only get worse. This cannot happen in this country. If anyone can help or know of anyone who can my name is James Miller,ph.#561-848-5408,address,4200n.ocean dr.-apt#2-1603,Singer Island,Fl.33404. I’ve lived at this address since Jan.1990.