Foreign Policy; November/December 2006:
By Cyrus Farivar
For Commander Sid Heal of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, one of the most frightening aspects of responding to a future terrorist attack is knowing how to respond correctly. In an era of increasingly sophisticated terrorist plots, the proper response may require a Ph.D. in chemistry or biology. “We don’t have anyone who is as capable as a chemical or biological engineer,†says Heal.
So he teamed up with British Columbia-based Argon Security Technologies to bring the scene to them. Using $700,000 in U.S. federal homeland security grant money, Argon is building a mobile “Cyber Command Post,†which Heal can take to a crime scene and collect live video images using wireless cameras mounted on everything from the hood of a police cruiser to unmanned aerial vehicles. Those images would then be relayed in real time to the computer of any expert, including the 100 or so who remain on call to help in the event of a disaster.
Why couldn’t a police officer just call up a scientist on the phone? Heal says it’s a fair question. But in some cases police officers may not be able to identify and describe the tell-tale signs that matter most. For instance, if the department wanted to ask a chemical engineer questions about a large-scale chemical explosion, its new cyber command post would allow engineers to “participate just as if they were standing there,†Heal says of the technology, which is still being tested. Fifteen other police departments have already expressed interest in the device. In this case, a picture might be worth a thousand lives.
Cyrus Farivar is senior associate editor at the technology blog Engadget.
