Last year a trial court judge in California stated that "he knew" thermal imaging systems were "intrusive" and could see through walls, because he had seen the movies "Predator", "Blue Thunder", and "Navy Seals". This type of thinking by judges is particularly worrisome to us in law enforcement, many reasons of which extend well beyond the area of thermal imaging.

This year, I have been asked to testify as an expert witness in four cases and the same issues have been brought up in each case. First, it is very apparent that judges and many prosecutors have a very limited understanding of the legal concepts connected with thermal imaging. This is a strong indicator that we, in law enforcement who are presenting the warrants, are not taking the time to educate those in our court systems. Increasingly, "defense experts" are popping up and presenting very misleading evidence and making untrue statements in court, some of which are very convincing to the uneducated.

In an attempt to get the truth out, several experts in the field of thermal imaging in law enforcement have assisted with the writing of professional articles. Recently, two of these articles appeared in international law enforcement publications. Much to these experts’ dismay, the articles still contained misleading and often erroneous statements. Rewrite after rewrite was submitted, often with no changes made by the authors of these articles. Rather than settle some of the usual issues that surface in court, these articles have fed the fodder of defense councils all across America. For instance, we do not use "forward looking infrared radar". Radar infers that thermal imagers send beams or rays into structures and people. "FLIR"stands for "forward looking infrared". "IR" is the international symbol for "infrared". This is an old military term and we are better off using "thermal imaging" instead of "FLIR" or "IR" in our affidavits. Also, neither do we use "thermal surveillance" as the sole justification for obtaining a search warrant. Remember your "wall of probable cause" and consult your "standards and protocols".

Bear in mind that it does not matter if you are using thermal imaging from a helicopter or holding the camera in your hand, there is no difference in the technology, applications, standards or protocols.