Flir thermal sensors aid police in capturing Boston bombing suspect

Last Monday morning two bomb blasts went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. By Friday night the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was in police custody. After he survived a gunfight with police and slipped out of a dragnet, Massachusetts State Police finally spotted him via a thermal imaging technology manufactured by Flir.
April 23, 2013 Read time: 1 min
Dan Dietrich of FLIR
Last Monday morning two bomb blasts went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. By Friday night the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was in police custody.

After he survived a gunfight with police and slipped out of a dragnet, Massachusetts State Police finally spotted him via a thermal imaging technology manufactured by 6778 FLIR.

Flir thermal sensors can see clearly regardless of lighting or weather conditions. The suspect was hiding in a boat, under a tarp, but the thermal sensor was able to provide a clear view because it could detect his body heat.

“The technology used to view the bomb suspect is the same Flir technology used in traffic management,” says Dan Dietrich, Flir business development manager for traffic & ITS.

For example, Flir thermal imaging can be used in automated incident detection, pedestrian detection and bicycle detection.

Flir thermal imaging is a combination of Flir's 165 thermal sensors and an algorithm optimised for thermal imaging by Traficon, which was acquired by Flir in December.

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