September 22, 2005 -- John Turner had been making hobby metal detectors -- the kinds you take to the beach hoping to find diamond rings in the sand -- since the 1960s. Then, in 1992, Turner invented a sophisticated type of walk-through metal detector -- the kind you take your shoes off to go through at the airport. Later came a patented metal detector chair for non-intrusive cavity searches -- the kind that prison wardens would buy. Six years ago, Turner sold the hobby part of his business to dedicate himself to the exploding field of security detectors.
The company, Ranger Security Detectors, at 11900 Montana Avenue, has grown 20 percent in the past two years. Sales are expected to double within the next 12 months, thanks to a deal in the making with a Paris-based distributor serving European airports looking to update their metal detectors. The company makes 25 to 40 stand-up detectors and 15 to 20 sit-down detectors a week. The European deal would increase production by several hundred pieces a year.
"It all has to do with security needs due to terrorism," said John Turner's son, Robert Turner, the company's president. John Turner is CEO. "We have just scratched the surface of our potential business," Robert Turner said.
Security everywhere
Ranger machines are in military buildings, on ships and in shipyards, and at El Paso City Hall, the Border Patrol and Fort Bliss. But that doesn't means government contracts are Ranger's only business. The company recently sold several devices to casinos in California, after rumors circulated that terrorists were about to target casinos. Robert Turner sees the customer base for security products expanding. "You're going to see metal detectors in Greyhound stations, post offices, movie theaters, malls," he predicted.
His Mexico distributor agrees. Aaron Mendoza, a sales representative for Syscom in Chihuahua City, sells Ranger products to airports and maquilas, but also to schools, jewelry stores and smaller businesses. "Right now we have a lot of demand from jewelry stores in the south of Mexico," Mendoza said. "They want to make sure that people don't leave with gold or silver."
Half of Ranger's sales are made outside of the United States, in particular in Mexico; an additional 48 percent are national, and 2 percent are local.
The big boys
The security detector market is growing because demand is increasing while the industry is closed to newcomers without technological expertise or an established reputation. So a small business like the Turners', with 40 to 60 employees, now competes with larger companies and has a chance to grow.
Ranger's competitors are California-based Rapiscan, a wholly owned subsidiary of OSI Systems and the makers of Metor brand detectors; Ceia in Italy; and Garrett Metal Detectors in Garland, Texas. Rapiscan has offices in several countries, and Garrett employs 150 people, according to their Web sites.
Ranger is now focusing on post-sale service and on protecting its inventions. John Turner is ready to file a lawsuit against a competitor he won't name, who, he alleges copied his designs.
Not just prisons
Even products that previously targeted the lucrative, but narrow prison market are now catching the eye of homeland security types.
One example is the BOSS, Body Orifice Security Scanner, a chair with metal detectors under the seat and behind the back, legs and head rest. "Prior to the chair, (detention officers) would have to put on rubber gloves and go into (the inmates') bodies," John Turner said.
The Arizona Department of Corrections reported in its newsletter in 2001 that the chair picked up on inmates concealing metal objects in their shower thongs, one inmate with a spool of copper wire in his mouth, and another with a syringe in his rectum. The chair was developed with Turner's former business partner, Tom Scrivner, a former assistant superintendent in the Ysleta Independent School District. Turner owns the patent.
The BOSS' biggest client so far has been New York state, which has bought about 80 chairs since 1999. Three years ago, the Department of Homeland Security, which runs detention centers for immigrants, bought 18 chairs from Ranger. The BOSS, which sells for $3,000 to $9,000, doesn't involve removing people's clothes and is less likely to result in injuries or to be perceived as a rights violation, Turner said. It could minimize lawsuits, he said.
