To scan and protect

COEUR d’ALENE — A full-body scan that takes about 7 seconds is projected to improve safety at the Kootenai County jail.

The $118,000 machine that employs high-tech methods to search people for contraband was put to work for the first time Friday.

“We’re protecting the inmates, honestly, from themselves,” said Sgt. Chris Wagar, who led the operation’s installation, coordination and training.

He said the whole-body scans, basically an X-ray, will reduce the potential for drugs and weapons coming into the facility.

“Imagine the tragedy that could happen if a knife made it all the way past pat searching and through a strip search and got into a pod and was used against somebody,” he said. “That’s a liability for the county, a liability for the organization, not to mention just the sheer danger for everybody within the facility.”

Wagar said their priority is to protect staff and inmates.

“I think this is a key part of the puzzle that will help protect everybody,” he said.

Anyone entering the jail will have to be scanned. They stand on an automated platform that glides across the floor and pauses for a low-dose radiation scan, while a staff member watches, then inspects the image that appears on the screen.

Officials heard there might be drugs in a pod. About 15 people were scanned by about 2 p.m. Friday. While no drugs were found, the X-rays did their job and gave the green light.

Previously, anyone coming off the street to the jail on bondable offenses was pat searched.

If they were headed to join the jail population, they were also strip searched, which can take about 10 to 15 minutes.

But it’s difficult to detect something inside someone.

“The criminal population has become familiar with our search techniques and found out if you put something in the body cavity you can get it inside a jail,” said Lt. Kyle Hutchinson.

The community expectation is if someone is arrested, they don’t have access to illegal substances at the jail. But jail staff on Friday said that’s not always the case. More people are using their body cavity to carry drugs when arrested, and it can reach the rest of the jail population, which creates a dangerous situation.

The X-ray machine has been about four years in the works and is much like what you go through at the airport. It was funded in the sheriff’s budget and comes with a five-year warranty. Training will continue.

Sgt. Chris Boots used the keyboard and touchscreen to demonstrate its capabilities Friday.

Within seconds of a subject standing on the platform, being scanned, an image popped up on a screen for Boots to scrutinize.

It can detect the most minute of items, such as a small piece of metal. If it shows something suspicious, a second scan will be conducted 30 minutes later. If the same anomaly in the body is in a different location, “it’s probably contraband of some sort" and the subject will be searched again.

The scan picks up anything dense. A titanium hip replacement would show up, as would cobalt chrome used for a knee replacement. Yes, a gun hidden inside pants would be easy to spot. A small knife or drugs, not so much by the traditional pat search, but definitely by a beam of radiation.

It’s projected as many as 10,000 men and women, some coming to jail for the first time, others returning from a furlough, will be scanned annually at the jail.

Every time someone leaves, they will be scanned on return.

It's safe, Boots said, noting that the amount of radiation the subject is exposed to is about the same that's in a single banana.

No drugs means a better, safer environment at the jail, say officials.

“It will minimize the liability of having an inmate die from an overdose,” said Capt. Kim Edmondson.

“The devastation of somebody dying in custody is terrible, for families and for employees,” she said. “We don’t want that.”

Kootenai County Commissioner Bill Brooks said the body scanner “was long overdue.”

He said in speaking with other entities that use whole-body scanners, he found they dramatically reduced contraband getting inside the jail.

It is important to publicize the full-body scanners are in use, and also that it's a felony if you are caught trying to bring contraband into the jail, Brooks said, as it will deter people from trying.

Commissioner Chris Fillios agreed.

“Very appropriate, desperately needed,” he said.