POLICE LIMITING USE OF THERMAL CAMERA

MEDFORD -- Local police are using a heat-sensing camera that can help them
find people they can't see with the naked eye. With the help of the
infrared thermal-imaging camera, police can locate suspects hiding in the
dark or possibly a child lost in the woods.

But the devices are controversial. In June, a divided U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that officers must get search warrants if they are going to use them
to look into people's homes.

"Because of the case law, we keep its use more for searching open fields
and to maintain officer safety," Medford Detective Sgt. Anthony Canale told
The Philadelphia Inquirer this week.

Canale completed a five-day course on thermal-imaging law and how to use
the equipment before training six officers in his department.

"We use it in fugitive apprehensions, vehicle pursuits, or to save an
officer from an ambush if a suspect is hiding in perimeter areas," Canale said.

Medford installed its equipment using a $10,000 grant from the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. The camera is mounted on the roof of a police
cruiser that patrols only at night.

Merwin Simpson, a sales coordinator for EMX Inc., a company that
manufactures the devices, said business had been increasing. The Sept. 11
terrorist attacks also sparked sales.

The devices are widely used by firefighters to search for people trapped in
smoke-filled buildings.

Civil libertarians, however, remain wary about their use by police, citing
the potential for unlawful searches and invasion of privacy. They have
challenged the use of such cameras in other jurisdictions.

"What we're looking for is judicial review. Police have to make a showing
to look into people's homes," said Chris J. Hoofnagle, legislative counsel
from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a watchdog group in Washington.

An infrared camera had been used to detect marijuana growth in private
homes until the Supreme Court justices, in an Oregon case, decided that
"while the technology used in the present case was relatively crude, the
rule we adopt must take account of more sophisticated systems that are
already in use or in development."