Metal Detectors in Public Places

Sean C. Monaghan

Issue: According to state courts and statutes, what type of showing must the government make before it can place metal detectors in schools, airports, courthouses, and elsewhere? (Ch.2)

Date: Thursday, June 19, 1997 

"[W]ith the growth of the modern administrative state, suspicionless, administrative searches are pervading American society. . . ." 46 Cath. U.L. Rev. 1041. In general, lower courts consider metal detectors administrative searches; many courts have held them constitutional. Donald L. Beci, School Violence: Protecting our Children and the Fourth Amendment, 41 Cath. U.L. Rev. 817, 829. Metal detector searches are commonly conducted at schools, airports, performing art centers, public buildings, and courthouses. Id. I did not find very many state supreme courts explicitly addressing the use of metal detectors. What follows are examples of practices in various states, because I was generally unable to get counts of what is required before government can set up a metal detector in most states.

In New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985), the Court seemed to suggest that suspicionless searches in schools may be constitutional, but declined to address such searches specifically. Rather, the Court held that searches conducted with reasonable suspicion would pass constitutional muster.  

Schools

Many schools use metal detectors, and courts addressing the constitutionality of using metal detectors permit them for safety purposes, rather than for crime detection. 11 SUM Crim. Just. 46, 47. A Louisiana statute allows random metal detector searches, which may be conducted at anytime so long as those conducting the search refrain from deliberately touching students. La. Rev. Stat. � 17:416.3. The Supreme Court of Illinois held that searching students entering a school with a metal detector required no individual suspicion. People v. Pruitt, 662 N.E.2d 540 (1996). I found fourteen jurisdictions (California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas) permitting the use of metal detectors without individualized suspicion. Nine states provide for metal detectors in schools by statute. Fla. Stat. � 232.256; Del. Stat. tit. 14 � 4119; DC � 4 10-5; Ga. Stat. 20-2-1185; Kty OAG 94-58; Miss. Stat. 37-3-83; SC 59-66-30; Tenn. St. 49-6-4207.  

FAA regulations require airlines to set up metal detectors in order to find weapons and explosives. 14 C.F.R. � 121.538 (b). See also, Gibson v. State, 921 S.W.2d 747 (1996) (allowing metal detectors at airports, courthouses, and government buildings); Com. v. Harris, 421 N.E.2d 447 (Mass. 1981) (same).  

I found more than twenty courts permitting metal detectors in courthouses, but most of these courts did not address the question directly, but rather with regard to prejudice to the defendant from having metal detectors to screen persons coming in the courtroom. See e.g., State v. Aguilar, 352 N.W.2d 395 (1985) (metal detectors at courthouse do not prejudice defendants); State v. Harzog, 635 P.2d 694 (Wash. 1981) (specifically permitting courts to require all those entering courtrooms to pass through metal detection); State v. Myrick, 616 P.2d 1066 (Kan. 1980) (same). Courts have increasingly recognized the need for protecting courtrooms with metal detectors. Harris, 635 N.E.2d 447. Such administrative searches are justified at the entrances to "sensitive" facilities. Id.  

The overwhelming majority of the cases I found addressing the use of metal detectors to screen persons dealt with prisons. There seems to be widespread agreement on the constitutionality of use of metal detectors in prisons. See e.g., Rhode Island Attorneys Association v. Dodd, 463 A.2d 1370 (R.I. 1983)