When people hear metal detector and Miami, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is the image of someone in a floral shirt with a bucket hat on, combing the beach for lost treasures. In reality, metal detector systems are hard at work all over Miami helping businesses, music festivals, stadiums, and conventions (to name a few) become safer and more secure.
All security measures share a common goal, to mitigate risk. Unfortunately, there is no one fix-all security measure in existence. Several measures need to be taken in order to effectively mitigate as many risks as possible. Let’s look at an example we’re all familiar with, a Miami Dolphins home game at The Hard Rock Stadium. The stadium’s security team implements several security measures, from clear bag policies and limiting the sizes of handbags and purses, to active monitoring of security cameras to direct security staff to potential and active problems.
While doing a full NSA-style pat-down search on every fan entering the stadium would be the best way to prevent prohibited items from entering the stadium, this isn’t realistic. While security staff can clearly see all items in a clear bag being brought into the stadium, some fans have come up with creative ways to smuggle prohibited items in, from taping items to their bodies to hiding them in hollow shoe soles.
Having every fan enter through a walkthrough metal detector, improves the rate of fans entering the stadium, as only those who trigger the detectors need to be pulled aside and searched, with rule-abiding fans being able to enter hassle-free.
Just a few years ago, you only had two options when it came to metal detectors. TSA-like archway walkthrough units are cumbersome, difficult to set up, and required a lot of dedicated space. The other option, handheld metal detectors, while more portable, requires every passing person to be fully scanned which takes up time and limits the rate of people entering the premises.
Miami has seen a huge increase in events, such as Miami Music Week, that doesn’t make use of traditional venues like stadiums and convention centers, but rather of hotels, restaurants, boats, and other pop-up locations for live shows. While these events create new risks for security teams to overcome, as plenty of the usual security measures are no longer practical, a new type of metal detector system has come to the market.
The Ballistiscan is an all-in-one portable walk-through metal detector. The Ballistiscan comes with two Magnetic Anomaly Detectors sensors (or MAD sensors) that can easily be mounted on stanchions, door frames, or any other surface (provided the surfaces are less than 4 feet apart), which are then connected to power and the supplied laptop, for an easy and discrete metal detector system.
One of the biggest criticisms of metal detector systems is the fact that to be effective, they need to be installed at controlled entry and exit points, which are usually the main entrance to buildings and venues. Large walk-through metal detectors or guards wielding handheld detectors do act as deterrents, but determined assailants will often search for alternative entrances such as back doors and windows which are often unguarded.
Discrete and stealth metal detectors shine on two fronts in this regard. Firstly, since they don’t look like traditional metal detectors, and allow for buildings to maintain a friendly, non-threatening, and unguarded entrance. Secondly, because of their low-profile design and built-in feature that triggers an optional web camera, Ballistiscan units can be mounted on unmanned entrances throughout a building. When the unit triggers to alert of the presence of metal, the webcam automatically takes a snapshot of the perpetrator, which can be quickly distributed to security staff, which can stop an incident before it starts.
At Ballistiglass, we care about your safety, and that’s why we’ve made our Ballistiscan Metal Detector System available for anyone to buy. If you’re looking to secure a single entrance, or if you need help securing your entire building, feel free to contact our sales team at 954-612-6640.