POLICE are developing a revolutionary mobile scanner that can detect weapons being carried on the streets, The Times has learnt.

Senior officers believe that the device, developed for Scotland Yard by British and American scientists and nicknamed “the Machine”, will change the face of policing around the world and could save thousands of lives.

With the scanner, officers will be able to see the outline of guns, knives and other weapons hidden under clothing and to intercept criminals before they strike. The scanner could also help in the battle to stop suicide bombers by pinpointing devices packed with bolts and nails. Large scanners are at present used at Channel ports to detect illegal immigrants in container lorries.

But police may have to battle with civil liberties groups before they can deploy them — the scanner reveals intimate body details and civil liberty groups may argue that it will infringe privacy.

The device harnesses technology known as passive millimetre-wave scanning to pick up harmless radiation from objects on a special camera, using a waveband between infra-red and microwave.

On this wavelength, clothes emit almost no radiation and the scanner screen show the human body as a dull grey colour shape. Hard objects show up well and are highlighted in a bright white light. The scanner can not only pick out metal but also the plastic and ceramic materials now used to make weapons. It is also much faster than traditional X-ray machines or metal detectors.

The Times has established that the project was ordered by Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, earlier this year as Scotland Yard launched a huge crackdown on gun crime. Shooting incidents across England and Wales rose by 35 per cent to 22,314 last year from 17,589 in 2000-01. In 12 years, the number of handguns used in crime has risen from 2,537 to 5,871. Yesterday, a young man was shot dead in a hairdresser’s in Nottingham.

The scanner would be deployed in undercover vehicles by detectives at crime “hot spots” or in areas plagued by drug dealing or gang violence.

The existence of the scanner has been kept secret within Scotland Yard and only a few senior officers know of the project. Sir John and other commanders were given laboratory demonstrations this year.

A large version has already been tested on the London streets, from the back of a converted van and police are highly optimistic that it can work operationally.

Police have tested various other detectors but none has matched the accuracy of the new scanner. Scotland Yard believes police forces around the world will queue up to buy the equipment.

Scotland Yard scientists are working with American scientists and QinetiQ, the privatised section of the former Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, the British leaders in the technology.

So far the machines are too large to use on the streets and have a range of only a few feet. When the scanners are used at ports, they have to be driven alongside containers. But researchers are working on a portable machine that can fit into a car and be operated at some distance from suspects.

Yesterday QinetiQ would neither confirm nor deny its part in the project but acknowleged that it is a major player in developing the technology.

Civil liberties groups in the United States have complained about the technology and yesterday Liberty, the British civil liberties group, cautioned that it would have to be used with strict controls.

Liberty said: “It’s a question of responsible use. We can’t object to technology which helps to protect police and the public. The danger is technology of this sort has a potential for obvious misuse. It might be used for pure titilation.”

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