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The New York Police Department will begin using scanner technology that can see through a person’s clothes within the year, according to Commissioner Ray Kelly.

“We’ve been looking at it for several years, looking at it with the Department of Defense, and also Metropolitan Police in London,” he said on CBS News’ Face the Nation.

New technology called Tera-Hertz scanners or T-Ray machines can be used to detect whether a person is carrying a concealed firearm. The new device utilizes T-rays, which pass through fabric and paper, but not cannot pass through metals.

“Basically, everyone emits Tera-Hertz radiation and if that radiation is blocked by something such as a weapon, you can see the outline of it,” Kelly explained.

“We have tested it, we just received the latest prototype and it is very encouraging. It is still to big for deployment in a reasonable way, but we are getting there. It is sort of like the cell phone was 20 years ago. So we are encouraged by that and the British are encouraged as well. We hope to be using it – at least, experimentally – in the next six months.”

Watch video, courtesy of CBS, below: