Texas Game Wardens to Utilize Radiation Detection Equipment
March 21, 2016
Texas Game Wardens in the Rio Grande Valley are ready to keep an eye out for radioactive threats.
The Port of Brownsville gets a lot of traffic. It keeps growing and that’s good for business. But it also means police need to keep pace with new threats.
Game wardens along the Coastal Bend are on the lookout for radioactive material. They now have personal devices that detect radiation.
“We’re able to detect anything, depending on how strong the source is, out to several hundred yards,” Capt. James Dunks, with Texas Parks and Wildlife, said.
Previously U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were known as the ones with that kind of equipment.
“We spend a lot of time on the water. We’re the primary law enforcement agency on the water for the state of Texas,” Dunks said.
Game wardens patrol the Rio Grande, as well as the Brownsville Port of Entry. The port is close to homes and workplaces.
The restaurant La Familia is hundreds of feet from the channel. Cynthia Escamilla, a waitress at the La Familia, said she’s seeing more boats in the channel this season.
The port is growing and that means more cargo.
Escamilla said better technology would make her feel safer. She said the port could be a target.
“With these devices, any of these ships coming in from foreign countries … We will be able to detect if there’s any type of material on that vessel that we need to take interest in,” Dunks said.
The planned arrival of liquefied natural gas facilities and SpaceX in the Brownsville area means more targets.
“That’s the last type of thing that we want to encounter,” Dunks said.
The device in the hands of every game warden means a better chance of detecting something dangerous.
Parks and Wildlife officials said they’ve received the small personal radiation detectors. They’re also getting larger ones with bigger ranges on their boats. Those will patrol the waters.
CBP officers who use the devices are trained to distinguish a threat from something every day. They said some materials on roadways can set off a radiation alarm; even someone who’s gone through radiation therapy can trigger the device.
