ALERT Along the Texas coast, game wardens will now carry radiation detectors

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/...s-are-now-looking-for-poachersand-terrorists/

Texas Game Wardens Are Now Looking For Poachers … and Terrorists

Along the Texas coast, game wardens will now carry radiation detectors.

Dave Fehling | Posted on March 18, 2016, 6:21 AM
Podcast
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/...-Warden-Nuke-SPOT.mp3?source=download-article

Up and down the Texas Gulf Coast, the state’s game wardens are on the water, looking for people fishing or hunting illegally. But as we’ve reported, they sometimes come across things like illegal chemical dumpsites and more says Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Tom Harvey.

“Game wardens encounter all kinds of things on their patrols, including a lot of illegal fishing, and this is a new threat we’re gearing up to be able to address,“ Harvey told News 88.7.

That new threat is terrorism. One fear is that terrorists could try to smuggle radioactive material into the country by boat. The Port of Houston has for years had radiation detectors to scan cargo.

So now, besides guns and handcuffs, game wardens will have one more tool.

“We’ve acquired about a hundred devices that allow game wardens to detect radiological or nuclear emissions. These are little devices that can be worn on someone’s belt,” Harvey said.

They’re about the size of a cellphone and can help a warden determine if something suspicious is radioactive. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be connected to terrorism: radioactive materials used in the energy and medical industries can be illegally dumped.

Game wardens began training with the radiation detectors in January and completed a mock exercise to find radioactive packages along the coast.

 

[Taz]

Is our Shane in on this? Hope he got the business.

 

[JDSeese]

At first I missed "Texas" and assumed Pacific Coast, checking for Fukushima radiation.

That's a whole other problem

 

[Housecarl]

Yeah, what got me was that they've had radiation detectors at the border crossings for years in large part due to waste material on numerous occasions getting mixed with scrap metal and recast into things like lawn furniture.

That they're only giving the game wardens this capability now makes me wonder WTF is going on and is it related to any specific intel.

 

[Millwright]

The chances of them getting a ping on anything are pretty slim...like a plot twist in a Clancy novel kind of slim.

They do cover a lot of area that most LEOs don't, so why not.

 

[Housecarl]

The chances of them getting a ping on anything are pretty slim...like a plot twist in a Clancy novel kind of slim.

They do cover a lot of area that most LEOs don't, so why not.

True but with budgets being what they are this is more than a bit of a zebra in a herd of horses to be spending on. Heck, for their core mission those backpack sized drones that the military has been using would have made an easier budget sale. Again, 9/11 was 15 years+ ago and they're just getting these now?

 

[Millwright]

It had to be some kind of grant.

TPWD hasn't had the money to even run their marine patrols along the coast. Game wardens work the boat ramps to fill in coverage.

 

[Dozdoats]

About a hundred bucks apiece - Amazon lists a bunch of them.

http://www.amazon.com/GQ-GMC-300E-P..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=0RRGBH7ZKJNWNMRMPFB3

 

[Millwright]

$100 on amazon?

By the time it is spec'd out and goes through the bid process, they will pay $1000 for whatever they use.

These guys were getting 10 gal of boat gas a week.

This was a year or two ago...things may be better with Greg Abbott as governor.

 

[WalknTrot]

Game Wardens have enough to do, and their job is dangerous enough. I don't see why they should be saddled with INS and Homeland Security work too.

 

[Dozdoats]

I don't see why they should be saddled with INS and Homeland Security work too.

Hey, if 'See something say something' is good enough for Joe Sixpack, it's good enough for those who get paid with Joe Sixpack's tax dollars too.

Carrying around a little belt pouch the size of a smart phone case is no big deal, even if the likelihood of it ever going off is tiny. I've carried a NukAlert long enough to have had the battery changed (they last ten years) and the only time it ever beeped so far was because of temperature change, but it was there.

 

[Housecarl]

I don't see why they should be saddled with INS and Homeland Security work too.

Hey, if 'See something say something' is good enough for Joe Sixpack, it's good enough for those who get paid with Joe Sixpack's tax dollars too.

Carrying around a little belt pouch the size of a smart phone case is no big deal, even if the likelihood of it ever going off is tiny. I've carried a NukAlert long enough to have had the battery changed (they last ten years) and the only time it ever beeped so far was because of temperature change, but it was there.

Again, I get that, I'm just wondering about the decision process for the game wardens to be getting them.

 

[WalknTrot]

I don't see why they should be saddled with INS and Homeland Security work too.

Hey, if 'See something say something' is good enough for Joe Sixpack, it's good enough for those who get paid with Joe Sixpack's tax dollars too.

Carrying around a little belt pouch the size of a smart phone case is no big deal, even if the likelihood of it ever going off is tiny. I've carried a NukAlert long enough to have had the battery changed (they last ten years) and the only time it ever beeped so far was because of temperature change, but it was there.

My argument is that it just makes them a bigger target (big enough already) and it ain't what they signed on for.

 

[Codeno]

That new threat is terrorism. One fear is that terrorists could try to smuggle radioactive material into the country by boat. The Port of Houston has for years had radiation detectors to scan cargo.

One of Vince Flynn's novels (Memorial Day?) dealt with this scenario, racing against a deadline. Great nail-biter.