The Nicolet Secure 1000-Related News Story

[Judd Sills <sillsj@GAT.COM>]

The Nicolet Secure 1000 is apparently already in use
in North Carolina at the State Prisons.  I don't 
know if NC is an agreement state or not, but this
system has apparently met regulatory tests to be
operated. Someone from the NRC or an agreement state
would be good to hear from on any regulatory challenges
(or basis) to using a system of this type that does expose
the general public to ionizing radiation for non-medical 
purposes.

To share more on the system here in the US, an AP article
published in the April 8th Philadelphia Daily News (this
story was also in this morning's San Diego Union
Tribune):
===============================================================

If you're packin' heat, this X-ray will find it 
-----------------------------------------------


Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The next generation of weapons detectors is deadly 
accurate, able to look through clothes to find guns, explosives and even 
syringes and drug vials that can be tucked into rolls of fat.

About the size of a voting booth, a machine manufactured by Nicolet 
Imaging Systems of San Diego goes beyond metal detectors to show any 
solid object. It is being tested at North Carolina's Central Prison and 
the federal courthouse in Los Angeles.

``It's a very low-level X-ray,'' Capt. Marshall Hudson, a correction 
officer said during a demonstration yesterday. ``It's going to show 
everybody has something on them, keys and pens. Things you can't 
identify are things you want to do a more thorough search on.'' Hudson, 
who looked at the image of a fellow officer flashed on a video screen, 
said the $100,000 machine is capable of showing shin bones near the skin 
and even a person's private parts on the ``uncloak mode.''

While police groups are intrigued, civil libertarians are concerned 
because the same technology is being developed by other manufacturers 
into a hand-held model, which will enable police to detect a weapon 
hidden under someone's clothing up to 60 feet away.

A version could be ready for testing in 18 months and in use in four 
years.

``It becomes a question of how intrusive they are,'' said Mark 
Kappelhoff, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, 
which questioned law enforcement's need to view the human anatomy.

The National Rifle Association also was concerned that the machines 
could hinder the right in some states to carry a concealed firearm.

``I think right now there are a lot more questions than there are 
answers,'' said NRA spokesman Chip Walker.

But officials who represent police officers disagreed.

``Anything that enhances public safety and officer safety, we're for,'' 
said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the 
nation's largest police group with 277,000 members.

Gerald Arenberg, spokesman for the National Association of Chiefs of 
Police, noted that a police officer is killed every 57 hours in the 
United States and that 189 cops are assaulted daily. 
Judd M. Sills, CHP           |   Office: (619)455-2049
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