STOP! OR MY MONKEY WILL SHOOT!

“Can you imag­ine hav­ing your house searched and the cop who walks in with the Kevlar vest using the two-​​way radio is a mon­key?” asks TalkLeft.

Officer Sean Truelove is spear­head­ing the [Mesa Police] department’s request to pur­chase and train a capuchin mon­key, con­sid­ered the sec­ond smartest pri­mate to the chim­panzee. The depart­ment is seek­ing about $100,000 in fed­eral grant money to put the idea to use in Mesa SWAT oper­a­tions…
Weighing only 3 to 8 pounds with tiny human­like hands and puzzle-​​solving skills, Truelove said it could unlock doors, search build­ings and find sui­cide vic­tims on com­mand. Dressed in a Kevlar vest, video cam­era and two-​​way radio, the small mon­key would be able to get into places no offi­cer or robot could go.
It has been a lit­tle over a year since Truelove filed a grant pro­posal with the U.S. Department of Defense under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and he is still wait­ing for word.

April 20th, 2005 | Cops and Robbers | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.