HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — There's a pilot program at theGlobal Forensic and Justice Center in Largo that is training officers on how to detect drugs with lasers.
Global Forensic Center project manager Kirk Grates calls it a game changer for getting drugs off the streets. Officers can use the laser to detect and identify illegal drugs from up to six feet away.
Grates showed us how the Pendar X10 is used to detect illegal drugs.
“It actually gives them intelligence right there on the scene. They can say, yes, it is meth containing fentanyl, or no, it’s just sugar,” he said.
Officers point the laser at the substance, and within seconds, the laser populates what kind of drug it is. This adds an extra layer of safety for officers and speeds up the process of identifying dangerous drugs.
“It's just getting drugs off the street—that is the number one priority,” Grates said.
They offer an online training course and also have loaner equipment they lend out to the agencies.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department is one of the local agencies that went through the training.
“This technology helps us because it gives us the ability to scan and identify thousands of substances that we otherwise wouldn’t know are present,” HCSO said.
The laser can identify 7,400 different chemical compounds. It also speeds up the process of finding illegal drugs.
“Get them and the individuals selling them off the street to help prevent any overdoses or deaths,” HCSO said.
Grates said he thinks this will save lives. They have several other agencies signed up for the training.
