An elite American Swat team wants to train a small monkey as the ultimate reconnaissance tool. Wearing a bullet-proof vest, video camera and two-way radio, the capuchin monkey would be able to get into places no officer or robot could go.

"Everybody laughs about it until they really start thinking about it. It would change the way we do business," Said Mesa Officer Sean Truelove.

Truelove, who builds and operates tactical robots for the suburban Phoenix, Arizona, Swat team, wants to train the monkey for special ops intelligence work. The tiny primate with puzzle-solving skills, could unlock doors, search buildings and find suicide victims on command, he said.

A grant proposal with the Department of Defence under the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency has been filed. The Swat team is looking for about £60,000 to purchase, train and care for the monkey over a three year period.