Current biological technologies that detect drugs are not adequate in meeting the challenges posed by enhanced emerging and advance chemical agents as defined by the Homeland Security Presidential Directive. The proposed system involves the modification of the patent pending, Tolliver Probe. The system relies on smaller, faster and more precise components and state-of-the-art techniques to detect drugs and chemicals used for explosives. Additionally, the system will be able to analyze the environment for drugs, chemical and biological warfare agents and other dangerous chemicals in real-time.

Americans need to be protected in state, federal and embassy buildings, during air travel, while attending schools and at our borders. Dr. Charles L. Tolliver at Prairie View A&M University has developed an airport security device (Z-Ray Pat. #:7-605-709 B2 and the “Tolliver Police Probe” a smaller hand held version of the Z-Ray security scanner. This probe system proposed here in Phase I will be more efficient and smaller allowing law enforcement groups in the field to gather and perform real-time analysis to determine the presence of harmful elements. 

With its anticipated accuracy and precision, the probe will prove to be a highly valued asset in significantly reducing the backlog of cases for forensic labs. Other applications include its use in effectively scanning luggage in airports, bus and train stations as well as enabling port authorities to efficiently scan cargo shipments.

Although there are numerous devices on the market which detect drugs and dangerous chemicals, many are not hand held and do not have the capability to intelligently make decisions based on levels of dangerous explosive elements and illegal drugs in real-time field scenarios. As a whole, currently used technologies are too often ineffective in detecting new explosives. Examples of existing technologies are ion mobility spectrometry, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance.