Park Police equipment purchase has fraught history

摘要

Communications problems during last year's Lafayette Square protests prompted the U.S. Park Police to shop for "long range acoustic" devices, which in the past were used as sound cannons in New York City that hurt demonstrators and cost the municipal government a bundle in a legal settlement. The Park Police cast the purchase of the devices, disclosed in a report released yesterday from the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General, as a boost for future incident commanders trying to warn or inform noisy demonstrators about impending police actions.