Discourse.net: Homeland Security Official Expresses Interest in Shock Bracelets for Air Travellers

July 08, 2008

Homeland Security Official Expresses Interest in Shock Bracelets for Air Travellers

Cosmic Iguana has found something incredible at TURNING TRAVELERS TO PRISONERS. The source is the Washington Times, so I suppose it’s suspect.

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.
This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass

• contain personal information about the traveler

• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage
• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

The Electronic ID Bracelet … would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.”

They have a pdf of what seems to be a letter from Homeland Security to back up the story: page one and page two.

Otherwise I’d treat it like My First Cavity Search.

Posted by Michael : July 8, 2008 12:30 AM | Law: Right to Travel | TechnoLinks

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Comments

This humane initiative will probably be combined with this one to restore the jolly free-enterprise days of the Middle Passage.

Posted by: James Wimberley at July 8, 2008 05:14 AM

The letter seems authentic enough, but folks should note that (1) it appears to date from sometime in 2006; and (2) the author isn't talking about air traveller use (though at one point he says that's "conceivable"); he likes the bracelet as a means of restraining prisoners in open environments.

Posted by: Jonathan Weinberg at July 8, 2008 08:17 AM

Forgetting for the moment any and all legal issues that may be presented by this method of "security", this may be the worst idea yet for increasing passenger/airplane safety. Let us not forget why only 3 and not 4 planes reached their intended target that cool morning in September of 2001. I wonder what the success rate would have been with a cabin of incapacitated passengers unable to resist their captors.

Posted by: Josh at July 8, 2008 11:31 AM

I'll have to book on Sudan, Yemenia or Syrian Airways from now on if that becomes the norm on American carriers.

Posted by: howard at July 8, 2008 03:52 PM

Sounds like a money maker to me. Just consider being INNOCENT and getting a jolt. That says payola! big time. Any trial lawyers that read this must start salivating.

Posted by: grthinker at July 8, 2008 04:52 PM

Airlines would go bankrupt in a matter of months because nobody in their right mind would ever fly again.
Period.

Posted by: Steve at July 12, 2008 11:36 AM