Remote panty-scanners closer than you think.... ----------------------------------------------- "U.S. Developing 'Remote Frisk' to Seek Weapons in a Crowd" Cox News Service (06/07/01); Emling, Shelley NLECTC Law Enforcement & Corrections\Copyright 2001, Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's laboratories in Boulder, Colo., are developing a device that police might one day use to spot people carrying dangerous weapons in unruly crowds. While engineers will likely develop a working prototype by year's end, U.S. officials have no immediate plans for deploying the system. The National Institute of Justice and the Federal Aviation Administration is funding the development of the "remote frisk," and the agencies have already spent about $200,000 annually on the project over the past three years. News of the system comes during a growing concern over domestic terrorism, but it also raises concerns over the constitutionality of high-tech policing practices. Kristian Miccio at Western State University College of Law in California says that using high-tech devices among crowds is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, an issue similar to a recent Supreme Court ruling involving an Oregon man. Rebecca Trexler, an FAA spokeswoman, says the FAA has reservations about a scanner that could peer through clothing. NIST spokesman Fred McGehan states that the agencies hope the device would provide only a rough silhouette of the person's body. (www.coxnews.com) [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] I note that a sizable industry is dedicated to not only keeping my silhouette private through advanced camoflauge techniques, but also morphing it out of its natural proportion. Can it detect a body-bound knife? A grenade? A minute explosive device? A "push-up" bra? Does their "rough silhouette" subject me to the same exacting tracing knife as those reclining ladies on 18-wheeler mud flaps? (Is this blue paint?) ~Aimee