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.'"

If you can't look at something you can't attack it

[EkriirkE]

I think suicide bombers would disagree.

Re:seems like a really bad idea

[eudas]

Primary source:
http://www.un.org/millennium/law/xxvi-18-19.htm [un.org]

And, links to the wikipedia articles (if that's not considered too circular):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Certain_Conventional_Weapons [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons [wikipedia.org]

Re:seems like a really bad idea

[Kenja]

Geneva Convention only applies to people you're at war with, not your own citizens.

Re:seems like a really bad idea

[geckipede]

Blinding laser weapons are specifically mentioned in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons annex of the Geneva Conventions.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons [wikipedia.org]

And yes, it does make a specific distinction between temporary and permanant blindness, so this thing is almost certainly legal as far as this particular protocol goes.

I should point out though, that the UK police have never even resorted to using water cannons outside of Northern Ireland, and use of riot equipment is a very serious political issue here. Breaking out the doom rays on a crowd of protestors is not going to happen lightly, and if it did happen, it would not be brushed off or ignored afterwards.

This tech could have saved a lot of Iraqis

[quax]

One of the most depressing aspects of the Iraq war was the large number of civilian drivers that were fatally shot at check-points [iraqwarlogs.com].

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

[spike2131]

Although I am pretty sure this goes against a Geneva convention

The relevant international treaty would be the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons [wikipedia.org], but that only covers weapons that cause permanent blindness.

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

[sadness203]

"The protesters were keeping the police from leaving"

Yet, you can clearly see the officer in the same video, going on the other side of the protester, walking over them casually without any difficulty, while waiving in his hand a can of pepper spray, just before spraying them.

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

[Zeek40]

Did you accidentally switch US and UK or something? Cops get away with shooting people in the US all the time. Unless the victim is already handcuffed and in the back of the cruiser, when a cop shoots someone in the US, they're put on paid administrative leave for a few weeks, then returned to duty. Maybe if it's really obvious that the cop had no business shooting the guy, he'll return to duty with a nasty letter in his file.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

You can find out how many people have been shot by police over the last 20 or so years here : http://inquest.gn.apc.org/website/statistics/deaths-in-police-custody/police-shootings.

53 (about 2.6 a year). Compare that to other countries.