BEE COUNTY, Tx. — The Bee County Jail has two new additions to its team to help protect officers, however, those additions don’t wear badges.
- The Bee County Jail has a new security measure when booking inmates and a drug-detecting machine.
- The scanner kind of works like an X-ray. It shows things in the body that may be foreign objects allowing officers to get a full view of the body.
- The drug-detecting machine, TruNarc, works by scanning the suspected drug and it will tell officers what the drug is.
- The Bee County Sheriff's Office said the TruNarc machines can assist in testing suspected substances for surrounding counties.
Sergeant Ruben Garza works in the Bee County Jail. He said that he is happy to have this new safety measure in their jail.
“I think it’s a great tool. It keeps everybody safe and makes sure that nothing is coming into our facility that does need to come in,” Garza said.
The Bee County Jail has a new security measure when booking inmates. KRIS 6 News walked through the process that inmates go through from the time they go into custody.
According to Garza at the Bee County Jail, the first thing inmates do when they enter the facility is get pat checked, but after that, they get a second screening.
“Then once we physically pat check them, we bring them over to our interceptor machine,” he said.
Before inmates enter the machine to be scanned, they must have their picture taken. When they are done having their picture taken, they enter the machine to have their scan completed.
“Whenever that process doesn’t work, where the bending over and stuff doesn’t work,” he said. “It makes it to where we can actually catch things that may not have been able to be caught by that which makes things easier for us to keep contraband out of our facility.”
The scanner kind of works like an X-ray. It shows things in the body that may be a foreign object.
However, that’s not the only piece of technology in the facility. The jail has something called a TruNarc. The piece of technology is supposed to identify drugs while officers are out in the streets.
Adrian Zerneno is a Sergeant with the Bee County Jail. He said that with the rise in drugs in America, this tool could not have come at a better time.
“With all the fentanyl and all those high-risk narcotics out there, it reduces our accidental exposure potential,” Zerneno said.
Zerneno said that this would give him and other officers a sense of ease.
“If it is not anything illicit, it will identify the substance whether it’s Epson salt or baby powder. It lets us know the difference,” he said.
Chief deputy, Ronnie Jones said these technologies have been a great addition to their county jail.
“We’re always looking for new and modern technologies to help us in law enforcement gain the upper hand on a criminal element with a special emphasis on officer safety,” Jones said.
The Bee County Sheriff's Office said the TruNarc machines can assist in testing suspected substances for surrounding counties.
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