Delhi Police is buying gadgets that would help it locate snipers and sharpshooters hidden from view. Called optical target locators, these devices would help sleuths of the security wing and two districts in securing VIPs, and the Special Cell in anti-terror operations, say sources. The police has invited bids from vendors to buy three such devices. Delhi Police protects the most number of VVIPs in the country and could be the first police force to acquire this device that’s usually handled by the armed forces.
Officers said it would help identify snipers equipped with any optical/electro-optical surveillance device like night vision equipment, binoculars, surveillance cameras or laser range finders. “In a layman’s language, you can say that the device will alert us if a shooter with a long-range weapon is hiding on a building or on a tree or even inside a vehicle which is close to the VIP route,” an officer said.
The police are apparently looking at OTL-300, a short-range device made by DRDO. It can spot threats within 300 metres. “It can detect passive or active optical threats like telescopes, binoculars,” a source said. The devices will come with a display screen and around 4GB memory for recording. An officer quoted from a document: “It is a laser-based portable surveillance device that functions on cat’s eye effect. It releases a laser beam which scans a designated area and as soon as it hits any target, it sends back the scattered energy and the target is detected. This retro-reflected energy helps in locating optical targets against a static background. Any surveillance device with front-end optics and a sensor at the focal plane can be detected by this approach.”
