The system in question is basically just a directed microwave emitter. It is designed to heat up the first ~0.5mm of your skin.

It's safety is basically completely a function of the operator. Since the beam will keep depositing energy (ie heating), if the beam is held on a target, it will incur more and more heating (and potentially harm).

In proper usage, safety is ensured through the combination of operator training, selection of proper settings, and induced compliance. If you have a shitty operator, risk of over exposure increases. The nature of this device means that it's not a barrier, it's a beam.

During earlier testing, they were able to induce second degree burns on a test subject due to incorrect power and duration settings.

for certain types of tools (and I'd certainly class weapons as this type) you have to assume that a certain number of operators will be, as you put it, "shitty". Whether it's because they're having a bad day, are genuinely incompetent, are malicious, whatever the reason---some percentage of the operators will be using your tool in a way you'd discourage for PR reasons.

Maybe I am too cynical, but I don't think the people making these tools actually care about this either, not beyond the potential for bad publicity.

knowing the kind of people who sign up for ICE/CBP enforcement, I have no hope that a trained or decent operator will be behind this machine.

I expect a lot of severely traumatized people from this device

Oh goody. Let's give cops another toy before we have tamed the use of pain compliance tools already in their hands. We are breeding a class of casual torturers.

Also try not to think about contact lenses, piercings, jewelry, pacemakers, etc.

> The system in question is basically just a directed microwave emitter. It is designed to heat up the first ~0.5mm of your skin.

So what happens when it's shot at someone's eyes?

> It is designed to heat up the first ~0.5mm of your skin.

Oh, is that all?

> US officials had also considered deploying the system during moments of domestic unrest, including at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term when protests erupted over the murder of George Floyd, according to a former US official familiar with those discussions.

This is for "the border" (because you know we should be able to torture people there), but really this will imperial boomerang back to US citizens in the blink of an eye.

And that's exactly the problem. We (and users) have known for decades that you can kill someone with a rubber bullet. And they have been used to intentionally kill on many different occasions.

There's no way I'd trust this in the hands of anyone, especially those operating in the service of the current administration. They say they want to use it to "protect the border" but there are reports that they'd used it domestically already.

Considering the non-tolerance of public protest and the "promise" of non-lethality, I could imagine this becoming a regular tool in population control if things don't change.

...and one need only watch videos of "trained officers" hosing people with pepper spray to envision how that will turn out.

> If you have a shitty operator, risk of over exposure increases.

Good thing border control isn't full of rejects and nonhackers from the military and real law enforcement \s

> If you have a shitty operator

Well, we are talking about US border patrol folks. Trust me, they are the nicest guys around /s.