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SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz is speaking out against vans that carry scanning technology inside them that allows people to see through the walls of cars, trucks, and even into homes.
The technology is similar to the full-body scanners used at airports, which Chaffetz, R-Utah, has openly criticized.
"These vans essentially can look through the walls of your home, look through the walls of a vehicle or a container and they can tell what's inside. They can see through people's clothes and give you some great detail about people's bodies, much like they do at the airport. That's pretty scary," Chaffetz tells KSL Newsradio.
Chaffetz says there are a few legitimate uses for the vans during a hostage situation or on the border to inspect trucks coming into the country, but he says other uses of the technology are an invasion of privacy that must be limited.
"To think that a van can drive down the street and literally look through the walls of a home and see who is inside and what they are doing. It was cute and funny when we thought about it in the context of Superman but when you realize they have already sold 500 of these vans, I've got real concerns about how and where we are using these," says Chaffetz.
The congressman says he's already working on legislation aimed at limiting what circumstances these Z Backscatter Vans, or ZBV's as they are called, could be used for.
The ACLU of Utah is praising Chaffetz for his stand against the new scanning vans. ACLU of Utah Executive Director Karen McCreary says the vans would be violating the constitution if they were simply driving around scanning for some kind of potential threat in the name of security.
"Under the 4th Amendment that's a search which requires a warrant before a search can be conducted," says McCreary. "So I do not see how these trucks roaming around with these X-ray (machines) can be considered constitutional at all by any city authority."
McCreary and Chaffetz both want to know who has been buying the scanning trucks and for what purposes.
The company's website says it markets the vans to the military, port and border patrol, airports, and facility and event organizations. A picture shows the van driving through a parking lot scanning vehicles as it passes down the rows.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
