SAY CHEESE, IT'S THE HEAT: COPS GET HELP FROM THERMAL CAMERA

Police work got white-hot this week as 40 Nova Scotia cops got a lesson in
how to take a crook's temperature.

One of North America's experts at using thermal imaging technology was in
Halifax this week teaching how white, glowing images on a TV screen can
help find bodies, fugitives, stolen goods, drugs, and even invisible skid
marks.

"The whiter the hotter," said Charlie Stowell, who was the first law
enforcement agent to get criminal conviction thanks to a thermographic camera.

Now retired, Stowell spent 31 years as a U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration officer. His pioneer bust in 1989 of a marijuana grow
operation opened the door to the technology's widespread use.

It all hinges on a $19,000 hand-held thermographic camera. It looks like an
oversized camcorder, but the "lens" is actually made of metal instead of
glass. The metal picks up heat levels on surfaces up to 400 metres away.
Some fancier models developed for helicopters can create thermographic
images at a range of three kilometres.

"Literally, these turn night into day," said Stowell yesterday.

Stowell points at two video images showing a simulated drug deal. The
regular image is completely blinding because the dealer's headlights are
shining at the surveillance cops. The thermal image -- which does not pick
up light -- shows the transaction clearly: ghostly, glowing crooks clearly
up to no good.

Nova Scotia police already have a small number of thermal cameras, but
there are only a handful of officers properly trained to interpret the
images. That number was boosted by 40 after Stowell's course this week.

Course co-ordinator Const. Eric Slinn, of the RCMP's criminal operations
support unit, said attendees included Mounties and police from Halifax,
Truro and Kentville municipal forces. Members of the RCMP's newly created
Integrated Border Enforcement Team, set up to patrol the U.S. border, were
also present.

Const. Michael O'Callaghan, with the RCMP's Yarmouth drug-section, said the
certification will enable him to use the equipment at his detachment. "In
the past we'd have to have someone brought in from Bridgewater. It
complicated things."

O'Callaghan said in a recent case an investigation of a large drug-growing
operation began with a tip from a source. The thermographic camera was
brought in to confirm a barn was indeed filled with powerful lights used to
grow the marijuana plants.

"The exhaust vents on the roof were just glowing white," said O'Callaghan.

"It clearly spelled it out."

The evidence helped him secure a warrant for a closer look. They busted the
operation successfully several days later.