Brijot Teams with OLETC, Baltimore PD in Fight against Illegal Guns

March 28, 2007
Baltimore police now using Brijot technology to detect concealed weapons

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc. announced today the successful completion of a comprehensive operational assessment of its BIS-WDS GEN 2 – concealed weapons detection system – during a pilot trial at the Baltimore City Police Department. The assessment initiative demonstrates law enforcement's ongoing resolve to identify and deploy cutting edge technologies that can strengthen the effectiveness of weapons security measures, increase the protection of evidence control facilities, courthouses, schools, transportation hubs, airports, and improve loss prevention. The assessment was in direct response to a presentation hosted by the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (OLETC) earlier this year in Baltimore on next generation weapons detection technologies. As a result, Baltimore City Police Department's Homeland Security Division, in collaboration with OLETC and Brijot Imaging Systems, agreed to conduct an operational assessment of the Brijot's BIS-WDS system at the police downtown headquarters building. The week long field assessment addressed three benchmarks areas commonly deemed critical to public safety applications: functionality, reliability, and performance.

"Brijot's BIS-WDS GEN 2 system successfully confirmed its technical ability to use passive millimeter wave technology for people screening and object detection as required by the relevant measures outlined in the product intended use document stipulated by OLETC and the Baltimore City Police," said Joe Barnes, project manager at OLETC. The system's full-motion, real-time imaging capabilities empowered law enforcement officials in Baltimore to consistently detect concealed threat objects underneath a subject's clothing in as little as 0.5 seconds – with the ability of identifying concealed items made of metal, plastic, ceramic, glass, liquids, gels, explosives, and composites - including those materials used to construct weapons and explosives. "The system consistently met and exceeded stipulated minimum object size criteria of 5"x 3" or greater – with the notable detection on an individual which carried two pens in his front coat pocket," said Frankie Guerrero, senior director for technical support at Brijot.

The BIS-WDS system offered law enforcement officials a thorough "virtual" pat down alternative – eliminating intrusive, time-consuming, personnel intensive and potentially dangerous physical searches – all done from a distance and without direct contact. Further more, the system's millimeter wave sensors do not image anatomical details – eliminating personal privacy issues - nor does it emit radiation that pose health risks to those persons with pacemakers, or pregnant women.

Used alone or as part of a comprehensive, multi-layered security solution, Brijot's proven reliability stands ready to uncover items that other technologies such as metal detectors, x-ray machines and added security staff are not technically equipped to identify; i.e., explosive materials, liquid, gels, Class A narcotics, and stacks of currency. By imaging subjects in real-time the system can be used to direct subjects into secondary screening areas for further investigation, focusing security efforts and eliminating profiling or ineffective random screening.

The importance of the effective test results by the Brijot BIS-WDS system have been recognized by OLETC and the Baltimore City Police Department. Given the security challenges faced by these agencies, namely the threat of detecting illegal guns in order to safeguard buildings, streets and communities from gun crime activity, marks the dramatic progress made for a national movement of uncovering and incorporating innovative technology into current security protocols. Brijot Imaging Systems stands ready to make substantial contribution to the successful outcome for this consideration by addressing the issue of concealed object detection and people screening technology. Moreover, it encourages States further effort to continuously enhance national implementation of security measures as challenged by the Statement of Principles and the Mayor's Summit on Illegal Guns.