Robert Auld, an audio engineer and former chair of the New York chapter of the Audio Engineers Society, is one of many in his trade who sees LRAD deployment as a military-style escalation of force.

“I would characterize it as a terror weapon, up there with tear gas and flash-bang grenades,” Auld tells Popular Mechanics. “The latter are supposed to be ‘non-lethal,’ but they can hurt you. Same for the LRAD.”