Law enforcement officials train on new thermal scanners
A new era of safety was ushered into the county with the arrival of two thermal body scanners at the Butler County Prison and Butler County Government Center last week.
In preparation for their use, warden Beau Sneddon, corrections officers and deputy sheriffs were trained on how to safely and effectively use the scanners Wednesday and Thursday, May 22 and 23.
The Tek84 scanners arrived May 15 and 16, Sneddon said, and will be used during the intake process of all inmates at the prison or inmates taken to and from the courthouse.
According to Sneddon, the arrival of the scanners has been long-awaited.
“We’ve been looking at body scanners for five years. We wanted to hold back and let everyone else go first. Usually we’re the trailblazers,” he said. “We wanted to see what units are good, what units are bad.”
His research brought them to Tek84, a California-based company that manufactures machines that take a person’s temperature, scan for COVID-19, and detect any contraband, such as drugs and weapons.
One scanner sits in a small room in the intake area of the prison where new inmates are processed. The other is in place in the Butler County Government Center, where sheriff’s deputies will use it to scan people being escorted from court to the prison, Sneddon said.
Corrections officers and deputy sheriffs went through two days of training to qualify to use the scanners. The training lasted 10 to 12 hours each day and detailed safety procedures, the science of how the scanner works, and more.
Since the scanners will be in constant use, Sneddon said it was important to have a vast majority of prison employees and sheriff’s department personnel trained.
“We’ll be able to run it 24 hours a day,” he said.
Training leader Stefanie Gardner explained that the X-ray technology makes all contraband visible during a scan. Recognizing how to detect different types of drug packaging on a scan, from clear plastic to electrical tape, also was reviewed.
The scanner also keeps data on the results of a scan and who performs the scan.
The machine is not meant to completely change intake, according to Sneddon, as pat downs and strip searches still will be part of the process.
“It’s just one more step,” he said of the scanners. “It literally takes seconds.”
He added that female inmates going through the process still will require a female corrections officer to perform the scan, and vice versa.
According to Sneddon, the scanners are meant to ensure the safety of everyone inside the jail — from employees to inmates.
“I think it’s another layer of protection,” he said. “When you are in here, you deserve to have an environment that’s free of certain temptations that you’d have on the outside.”
In a recent incident, inmate Alec Miller, 23, who was convicted of murder, died at the jail last November of a fentanyl overdose.
Inmates Qualin A. Davis, 41, Richard A. Bowser II, 23, and William J. Derrick, 42, all of Butler, were charged with possessing contraband, in relation to Miller’s death in his county jail cell. Davis also was charged with felonies drug delivery resulting in death, five counts of contraband and four counts of drug sales.
Court documents indicate Davis smuggled 16.32 grams of fentanyl into the jail Nov. 19.
Detectives said that following Miller’s death, they found two rolled pieces of paper, a bag containing smaller bags of a brown substance, and a plastic bag of 109 suspected fentanyl pills in Davis’ cell and found a rolled piece of paper and a brown substance in a black sock in the cell Miller and Derrick shared.
Sneddon said he is thankful to the court administration staff who helped write the grant for the scanner, and to the prison board, his deputy wardens and county commissioners — who all were fundamental to the scanners arriving.
The grant was first proposed to county commissioners in September and applied for in October. By February, the commissioners had accepted the $337,000 federal grant to purchase the two scanners from Tek84.
The money comes from federally allocated COVID-19 mitigation funds through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The staff training and equipment and software setup were included in the cost, Sneddon said.
