San Jose Police to Use Sound Weapon

NBC 11
February 25, 2008

San Jose police have a new crime fighting tool.

You might want to hear about it, but you won’t want to hear it being used.

They’ll be using a dish-shaped, sonic weapon called a Long Range Acoustic Device — or L-RAD.

Police say it will be used mostly as a high-grade sound system to amplify a police officer’s order at great distances.

Police say it will be used mostly as a high-grade sound system to amplify a police officer’s order at great distances.

But it can also be used as another of the department’s “less-lethal” weapons.

The ear-splitting device is growing in popularity around the globe and has been used by soldiers to flush suspected terrorists out of caves in Afghanistan.