CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- It’s now going to be harder for suspects being booked into the DuPage County Jail to sneak contraband into the facility.
DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick said suspects can be very creative when trying to hide weapons, drugs and other items from deputies, but that the jail’s new body scanner should make it easier to find that contraband without the need to conduct strip searches.
“I had a knife in my pocket and I couldn’t believe how well that showed up,” the sheriff said.
“I went through the machine twice myself. I had knee surgery. I have two titanium rods in my knee and those showed up like, I couldn’t believe how well they showed up.”
And, if something is found in someone’s body by the TEK84 Intercept body scanner, “We see the scanner and we say, we see that there and now a medical personnel is now going to retrieve it. Now, it doesn’t become a deputy’s responsibility.”
The scanner can be used for other purposes, too. He said corrections officers can also drag inmate mattresses through the scanner.
"Most common place to hide contraband like a shank, drugs, or any other substance you’re not supposed to have is a mattress in a cell,” he said.
The body scanner cost $150,000. The sheriff said money for the device was taken from other items the previous sheriff had budgeted for, but that Mendrick did not think were necessary.