|
|
Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | MESA, Ariz. (AP) - The Mesa Police Department is looking to add some primal instinct to its SWAT team. And to do that, it's looking to a monkey.
"Everybody laughs about it until they really start thinking about it," said Mesa Officer Sean Truelove, who builds and operates tactical robots for the suburban Phoenix SWAT team. "It would change the way we do business."
Truelove is spearheading the department's request to purchase and train a capuchin monkey, considered the second smartest primate to the chimpanzee. The department is seeking about $100,000 in federal grant money to put the idea to use in Mesa SWAT operations.
The monkey, which costs $15,000, is what Truelove envisions as the ultimate SWAT reconnaissance tool.
Since 1979, capuchin monkeys have been trained to be companions for people who are quadriplegics by performing daily tasks, such as serving food, opening and closing doors, turning lights on and off, retrieving objects and brushing hair.
Truelove hopes the same training could prepare a monkey for special-ops intelligence.
Weighing only 3 to 8 pounds with tiny humanlike hands and puzzle-solving skills, Truelove said it could unlock doors, search buildings and find suicide victims on command. Dressed in a Kevlar vest, video camera and two-way radio, the small monkey would be able to get into places no officer or robot could go.
It has been a little over a year since Truelove filed a grant proposal with the U.S. Department of Defense under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and he is still waiting for word.
If the grant goes through, Truelove plans on learning how to train the monkey himself and keeping the sociable monkey at home, just like a K-9 officer would. He projects that $85,000 in grant money would outfit the monkey with gear and pay for veterinarian care, food and habitat for three years. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | They tried that here in Oregon. The monkey was too smart for the police, but the Democrats got him elected Governor. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Maybe you're kidding but I remember hearing about his landslide victory. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13997
Location: Upper Left USA | Stick to the "Trunk Monkey" training! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | Where exactly do you buy a bullet proof vest for an 8 pound monkey. I mean, as far as I recall I don't think they made any kevlar vests for cabbage patch dolls, but next garage sale I stumble upon I'll keep my eyes open.
Maybe Ovation could do away with the hatch door on the U681 and they could use these monkeys to reach inside through the epaulet holes and change batteries. Hell you could probably teach them to adjust the k-bar. Wouldn't that be cool. You go to the shop with your frets a-buzzing and the tech pulls out the appropriate tool. No, not a t-handle wrench. But a little monkey! He could wear a little dickies shop shirt with an OFC patch on the pocket. Oh wait, this is the musical instrument business - he could wear a little AC/DC black concert t-shirt. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | re: "bullet proof vest for an 8 pound monkey"
?? Munchkin Emporium ??
Dave, maybe you could get a grant to teach him the uke?? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | Without even interviewing him first, I guarentee you I could teach a monkey to play the ukulele (at least as well as me). Dave |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | I tried. Anybody know how to get banana out of my 'sealed' tuners? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| "I guarentee you I could teach a monkey to play the ukulele "
I rest my case. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Would that be a uke with palm trees? :D |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Are you insinuating that I somehow resemble a monkey? That, my good sir, is an insult. To monkee's everywhere.
;)
BTW, had the uke out on the front porch last night doing...The Spaghetti Song! with Littleman (youngest son). A pair of elderly walkers stopped to listen. Nothing like an audience to leave only the player singing, eh? Apparently 2.5 year olds don't care for observers. Ah well... |
|
| |
OT-but can he play the uke??