Whites MATRIX 100, Instruction Manual

17

  • When the detector identifies a suspicious item and there is no visible 

source for the alarm (clothing is shielding the source object), ask the person 

to show you what they have in that area. For example, for an alarm along 

the arm or wrist, have the scannee pull up his or her shirt sleeve. Using your 

detector, duplicate the squeal you heard before, but now over the visible item.

  • Do not let the scannee influence you as to what is actually causing an 

alarm. For instance, if the detector denotes the presence of a suspicious item 

under a shirt sleeve, do not fail to completely investigate the source of the 

alarm even though the scannee assures you that it is just his or her watch.

  • If the person you are about to scan caused an alarm when walking 

through a portal metal detector, and your job is to try to locate the source of 

that alarm on his or her body, do not stop the complete scanning process just 

because you come across one alarm-causing item. Continue the scan even 

though you find one or more items in the process.

  • The lower abdominal area is particularly difficult to scan because this 

area is private in nature and because of the metal items usually found in this 

area: belt buckles, metal buttons or snaps, and metal zippers. When doing the 

initial front body scan, if an alarm occurs in this area, there are two possible 

ways to further investigate:

a. Ask the scannee to undo any belt he or she might have on and have 

him or her pull the belt ends away from the middle of the body. Now scan 

the zipper area; your handheld metal detector should tell you if it is now only 

sensing a zipper and/or a metal snap, or if a more suspicious item is present 

and further investigation is needed.

b. A second approach that some schools use is that, if the lower    

abdominal area is causing an alarm on the handheld detector, ask the 

scannee to bend the front of his or her front waistband forward, to ascertain 

that no weapon is hidden behind it. Facilities need to be available for 

situations where further investigation can be accomplished privately, but only 

in the presence of two or more school employees who are the same gender as 

the scannee

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