Cop Tech 2010

Heal´s push for more-sophisticated weaponry has made the LASD a standout among the nation´s 17,800 police departments. â€We routinely field questions from about five different law-enforcement agencies each week,†Heal says. And when the LASD finds a new technology, the repercussions are felt nationwide. In 2000 Heal introduced the Taser, making the LASD the first major law-enforcement agency in the U.S. to adopt the stun gun. More than 9,800 police agencies now use it.

John Gnagey, the executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, calls Heal a pioneer. â€He is bridging the gap between scientists, manufacturers and law enforcement.â€

The Wild West

It was in South Central, at the hands of a PCP addict, that Heal first understood how underequipped the typical officer is. On a late summer night in 1982, Heal, then a 32-year-old deputy, was patrolling with his partner near Watts, a particularly dangerous neighborhood, when the radio squawked that a vehicle had smashed into a streetlight. Arriving at the scene, Heal saw a mangled car and, slumped beside it, a man with one eye dangling from a socket. Inside the car, broken bottles of liquid PCP leaked onto the floor. As Heal searched the car, the man leapt to his feet and attacked him.

Heal´s partner managed to wrestle the drug-addled man away, but even a team of six failed to strap him to a gurney. Ultimately, the ambulance drove off, leaving the officers to cart the assailant to the hospital themselves. The episode perfectly illustrated the outdated tools of modern police work. Heal and his partner had been far from help, responsible for patrolling a large area and in contact with backup only by radio. They had no way of surveying the scene except by leaving the safety of their car and approaching on foot. Had backup not been in range, nothing short of a bullet would have subdued the attacker. â€Back then,†Heal says, â€if Wyatt Earp had come to work for us, he wouldn´t have had any trouble adapting to the equipment.â€

But it wasn´t until a tour of duty in Somalia in 1995 as a reservist with the U.S. Marine Corps that Heal acquired the experience he´d need to remedy the LASD´s shortcomings. Desperate for nonlethal weapons to disband rioters and keep gunmen from blocking the delivery of food and medicine into the country, the Corps tapped Heal´s 20 years of law-enforcement experience and put him in charge of gear procurement and peacekeeping training. â€Money was not an issue,†he recalls. â€I had a guy following me around with a blank checkbook. We got everything-lasers, sticky foam, sponge grenades, aqueous foam, stun guns. I just had to ask.â€