‘My head was going to pop.’ Videos show police using ‘sound cannons’ at protests
Batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets may be less than lethal, but as protesters have said, and as media outlets have reported, they can still do plenty of damage.
The same has been argued about a lesser-known tool in the police arsenal that has been seeing more use in recent days — the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), also referred to as the “sound cannon.”
Side effects including tinnitus, migraines, vertigo, and even nerve damage have been reported by people targeted with the sonic weapon, according to Fast Company.
In 2018, a federal court determined using LRAD improperly could constitute excessive force, even though it only emits sound, the outlet reported.
Court documents from 2017 say the LRAD “can project messages up to 600 meters away, produce a maximum continuous output of 136 dB at one meter away, and has the capacity to overcome 88 dBs of background noise at 250 meters.”
Firecrackers are between 140-150 decibels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and anything above 120 decibels can cause “immediate harm to your ears.”
Originally developed for military use, the LRAD is marketed as being the ultimate megaphone, a way to communicate with a crowd over all the noise, no matter how loud.
But the system can also emit a high-pitched tone that Portland Police Bureau Assistant Chief Chris Davis told the Willamette Week “is very hard to be around.”
Police in Portland used LRAD on protesters early Friday after their truck “came under attack,” the Willamette Week reported.
LRADs have been used periodically in the U.S. since 2009, the Arizona Mirror reported. “It felt like my head was going to pop,” Andrew Neef, a journalist, said of his first run-in with a sound cannon that same year.
“Your brain feels like it’s vibrating in a bowl of jelly on the table.”
And when used as a megaphone, it’s still far from pleasant, he told the outlet: “It was like the voice of God coming down to your ear.”
Genasys Inc., the manufacturer of LRAD, announced Thursday that departments across the country have started using the devices for “crowd communications during recent civil unrest,” listing Portland, San Jose, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Columbus, Charleston, and Fort Lauderdale by name.