FoxNews.com
Oct. 13, 2010: The Z Backscatter Van uses detects contraband like explosives, drugs or people in hiding with an X-Ray mechanism that has no need for a detector on the far side of an object, allowing it to be extremely mobile, versatile and built into a commercially available van.
Privacy advocates worried about x-ray scanners making their way around U.S. airports may be surprised to know the technology is also making its way onto America's streets.
The Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military and even local law enforcement agencies are buying and deploying mobile X-ray vans that can see into the interior of vehicles around them.
The Z Backscatter Van (ZBV), manufactured by American Science and Engineering (AS&E), can be used to detect contraband such as car bombs, drugs and people in hiding.
But the vans, which can also see through clothing and into some buildings, are raising privacy concerns as well as questions about health risks -- and what might happen if the technology gets into the wrong hands.
FoxNews.com was given a rare ride-along in a ZBV at a U.S. seaport in Elizabeth, N.J.
Click here to see FoxNews.com's video report on the ZBV...
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