CoolCop Beats the Heat

 

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It's not Robocop. It's cooler.

A California sergeant-by-day, inventor-by-night has revolutionized the way that cops keep cool as summer temperatures soar.

And police aren't the only ones feeling the burn of the rising mercury. U.S. military experts reported 3,000 cases of heat exhaustion in the past two years.

So, while the Iraq government might get a break from the heat next month, some U.S. soldiers, who have little respite from the scorching temperatures, will be using similar microclimate cooling vests and even a glove to fight the desertlike conditions.

Although modern equipment cools soldiers only when they are hooked up to their tanks and planes, the future generation of military technology will take the heat off individual soldiers on foot patrol, and even U.S. civilians working outdoors.

And since alertness and physical strength decrease with rising body temperatures, some physiologists said that this cooling equipment could save lives.

The Heat Beat

Sgt. Ron Baldal's CoolCop device might just be the next big thing for police since Dunkin' Donuts. It looks like a vacuum cleaner hose that attaches to the air conditioning vent on one end, and blows cool air directly between the officer's shirt and bulletproof vest on the other end.

After more than 20 years on the job, CoolCop inventor Baldal said he knows firsthand how things can heat up when wearing a wool uniform, bulletproof vest and 25 pounds of equipment on your back.

"Working in full uniform feels like you've wrapped plastic around your chest area and have to run in 100 degree heat and 90 percent humidity," he said.

Even when cops get back into their air-conditioned cars, they still can't escape the steamy weather, because the cooled air doesn't get behind their body armor.

But the flexible CoolCop hose does. The CoolCop contraption comes complete with a dashboard attachment, a 6-foot long flex hose and soft vinyl vest attachment.

And no one can sell it better than the people who actually use it.

Ryan Martin, a reservist-in-training, swears by CoolCop and has begun spreading the word to other officers throughout Idaho. "It's worth the $60, and I'm excited to see how it's going to work in winter when it becomes harder to warm up," he said.

Since selling several thousand CoolCops to police officers and employing more than 50 dealers nationwide, the CoolCop founder has also created a similar device for police dogs called CoolK9, which passes some of the car's air conditioning through a hose directly into the K9 kennel in the back seat.

Battling a Weathered Enemy

In blazing fields of combat, experts said the military faces the similar challenge of arming its members and keeping them cool at the same time.

"While heat historically has been a problem of war, soldiers used to be able to choose to fight only in good weather," said Dakota Wood, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Now, he told ABC News, the armed forces don't have the luxury to choose and must fight despite the heat.

Wood noted that while the military has to boost force protection, which calls for heavier and hotter equipment, it also has to increase troop mobility and make the troops accessible to the foreign community.

"That is why practical and effective cooling systems are so important to our war efforts," he said.