The Marshall County Sheriff’s Department is getting a new tool that will help officers find drugs and other items hidden in vehicles.
The county commissioners approved the purchase of a Buster Contraband Detector Monday. “The Buster is a density meter,” Sheriff Matt Hassel explained, “and a contraband detector can identify concealed items through material like wood, metal, and reinforced plastics.”
Hassel says the detector will help reduce the need for officers to tear a car apart to find hidden compartments. “This particular device will actually allow us to see through into the cavity, to see if there’s actually something there,” he said. “Doors are a big place to hide. They pull the door panel off, hide it in there, and put the panel on. This will be able to see without pulling that panel off.”
He says the purchase is part of a drug interdiction effort led by the Bremen Police Department. “The Bremen Police Department wrote a mutli-jurisdiction, multi-county grant for drug interdiction for this year, and in writing that grant, one thing they left out was an equipment line item,” Hasseld explained. “I’ve met with the Drug Task Force Board, and we’d like to use the DEA forfeiture funds that we’ve seized throughout Marshall County in different drug cases to purchase this piece of equipment.”
The contraband detector will cost about $6,500. Hassel told the commissioners the device will be housed at the Sheriff’s Department. It will be used by both the drug interdiction team and the drug task force.
