Local arms race

Kim Smith

Monday, Oct. 18, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

Law enforcement officers don't have to worry about bad guys with guns anymore.

They have to worry about bad guys with guns, laser sights, body armor and high-tech communication devices.

Just last week local officers were thwarted by a group of home invaders equipped with walkie-talkies and armored truck robbers protected by body armor. In January masked robbers stole highly sophisticated computer equipment from a Sprint building after incapacitating employees with stun guns.

It is no longer unusual to find body armor, laser sights, illegal phone monitoring devices and listening devices when serving search warrants in Las Vegas, officers agree.

"It's a scary phenomenon that we're just having to deal with," Metro Lt. John Alamshaw said. "These people are getting bold."

Although well-equipped criminals have always existed, officers have seen more of them since the February 1997 robbery of a North Hollywood bank.

The scene was repeated over and over on the TV news: officers scrambling for cover and doing their best to apprehend two bank robbers dressed in full body armor and carrying semi-automatic weapons. By the time it was over five hours later, the two gunmen, Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., 26, and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30, were dead and several more people were wounded.

Despite the outcome, the well-publicized video illustrated how useful the high-tech gadgetry can be to a criminal.

Now thanks to the Internet and the proliferation of mail order catalogues, anybody can get such tools of the trade, FBI Agent Joseph Dickey said.

"It's pretty easy to get," Dickey said. "We'll probably see more of it in the future."

The spread of high-tech gadgets in the hands of criminals means more intense training, said B.J. Zapor, special-agent-in-charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' Las Vegas office.

"Law enforcement has to operate in an environment where we assume the criminals use every means necessary to defeat our investigation, including electronic surveillance equipment and other countermeasures," Zapor said.

It's not just the highly sophisticated criminal who is using this stuff either, Zapor said.

"One of the effects of methamphetamine use is paranoia, and a lot of the people who use methamphetamine love to tinker," Zapor said. "And they are tinkering with the gadgetry they think will protect them."

Another person concerned about well-equipped criminals is Aaron Hagfeldt, general manager of Fox's Spy Outlet in Las Vegas. The 7-year-old chain sells everything from video cameras, pepper spray and stun guns to body armor and bug detectors.

"It definitely alarms me," Hagfeldt said. "I think it's a terrible thing for someone to get ahold of something like body armor and use it during crimes."

Hagfeldt said he questions his customers about their intentions and whenever he is uncomfortable with their answers, he declines to sell them anything.

However, Hagfeldt stressed that most of his customers have legitimate concerns and buy his merchandise for self-protection.

Video cameras are his biggest sellers, Hagfeldt said. Homeowners tend to buy them for outside surveillance while business owners buy them to deter shoplifters and to watch their employees.

Listening device detectors, or bug detectors, are also popular, Hagfeldt said. He sells one to two per week and rents two to three per month.

"I've been renting them to people who just want to have peace of mind and to those with legitimate businesses to run who are afraid of insider information getting out," Hagfeldt said.

As for body armor, Hagfeldt said he is getting more inquiries as the millennium approaches.

"But once they see the price most don't go for it," Hagfeldt said, noting the vests alone sells for $350 to $630.

While they aren't comfortable knowing that the criminals are so well protected and prepared, law enforcement officials say implementing sales restrictions wouldn't be practical.

There are people other than law enforcement officers who have a legitimate need for body armor, Alamshaw said.

"How do you determine who can have body armor and who can't?" he asked.

Whenever officers find an unusual device, bulletins are sent out to warn other agencies, Zapor said.

"Law enforcement is always attempting to better its equipment and technology to stay ahead of the criminals, but eventually they catch up and we have to try something else," Zapor said. "It's like a micro arms race."