Garrett Metal Detectors: The Paragon, the Guide and the Loop

By Chris Grollnek, Active Shooter Expert. Former U.S. Marine and retired police detective corporal. Chairman of the Board and Founding Principal, ASPP™. Published September 17, 2026.

Garrett Metal Detectors asked us to share its trade show loop, and here it is: eight minutes on the Garrett Paragon® walk-through metal detector, the new Garrett Guide hand-held, and the trade-off that sits behind every weapons screening decision. Garrett is a technology partner in the ASPP™ Community of Experts, and our Chairman serves Garrett as Special Advisor to the Board, so the loop belongs on this site as much as on any show floor.

What is in the Garrett Metal Detectors trade show loop?

Four segments, and they run in a loop because that is how a trade show booth works. The first is the Garrett story as Garrett tells it: the company was asked to help secure the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and its hand-held scanners and walk-through detectors have screened airports, stadiums, schools, courthouses, casinos and concerts in the years since. The second introduces the Guide, the hand-held Garrett presents as the next generation after the yellow Super Scanner most people picture when they hear the Garrett name. The third is a quiet argument about what security should look like: a detector that does its job does not make headlines, and Garrett would rather be the company you never have to think about.

The fourth segment is the one we would ask every buyer to watch twice. It explains why a weapons detector can let a threat through, and it does so without blaming the detector. We come back to it below, because it is the same conversation we have in every P.R.O. Model™ workshop.

What is the Garrett Guide hand-held metal detector?

The Guide is Garrett’s new hand-held for secondary screening and targeted searches, the wand an officer or a screener reaches for after the walk-through alarms or when a walk-through is not on site. The figures below come from Garrett’s own product page, so the claims are Garrett’s to make.

Garrett Guide	As listed by Garrett
Sensitivity	Seven selectable sensitivity levels, self-calibrating, one-button activation with three-button control
Alerts	Audible tone or silent vibration, red LED on alarm, green LED when ready
Scan surface	8 inch scan length on a 16 inch, 1 pound unit with a dimpled rubber grip
Environment	IP65 rated against dust and moisture, drop tested to a military specification, rated from minus 4°F to 140°F
Battery	Rechargeable lithium-ion, more than 125 hours per charge, full charge in 5 hours over USB-C
Origin and warranty	Made in the USA, three-year warranty

Two of those lines matter more than the rest for a prevention program. The vibrate mode lets a screener work a line without announcing every alarm to the crowd, which keeps the crowd calm and the screener in control. And the seven sensitivity levels let a site tune the wand to the threat it actually worries about, rather than living with a setting chosen at the factory.

What is the Garrett Paragon® walk-through metal detector?

The Paragon® is Garrett’s walk-through for courthouses, schools, stadiums, airports, hospitals and events. Garrett lists 66 detection zones across 22 horizontal bands, with left, center and right identification so a screener knows where on the body to look, 200 sensitivity levels and more than 20 stored programs. Its Ambiscan™ feature runs separate sensitivity settings for people entering and leaving, its Quick-Q® filter is designed to pass cell phones while still flagging weapons, and a Zero Touch™ card lets a supervisor change settings without opening the unit. The cabinet is IP65 rated, an optional battery gives up to eight hours away from wall power, an integrated backup keeps the unit running through a power interruption, and the whole thing carries a three-year warranty. The Paragon® is ECAC certified for aviation screening in Europe.

Garrett’s Paragon® product page also carries the Active Shooter Prevention Project endorsement badge, which links back to this site. The endorsement reflects what a prevention posture needs a walk-through to do: hold throughput without giving up sensitivity, and tell the screener where to look.

Why can a weapons detector let a threat through?

This is the segment of the loop we would make required viewing. Any weapons detector can be set to ignore bags, laptops, water bottles and belt buckles so the line keeps moving. Garrett’s point is that once a detector is tuned to pass those larger items, smaller threat items can hide behind them and walk through undetected. That is masking, and it is a setting decision, not a defect.

Every site has to choose. Ask guests to divest bags and larger items and screen those separately, which slows the line, or open the settings to let those items through, which lowers the security of the screen. Neither answer is wrong on its own. The wrong answer is the one nobody made on purpose. In the P.R.O. Model™, Prevention. Response. Options., that choice belongs to leadership, it gets written down, and it gets revisited when the threat picture changes. Screening technology is one layer of a prevention posture, and a layer only works when the people who run it know what it is set to and why.

How does Garrett Metal Detectors fit the P.R.O. Model™?

Garrett is the walk-through and hand-held detection partner in the ASPP™ Community of Experts and one of the partners our Chairman named in the Department of Justice program. Chris Parker, Garrett’s Director of U.S. Security Sales, sits on the ASPP™ Advisory Board, and our Chairman, Chris Grollnek, serves Garrett as Special Advisor to the Board. The P.R.O. Model™ was selected by the Department of Justice as “A” national standard for the Assistant United States Attorneys and across the department, and is in use at some installations and commands across the Department of Defense. The selection covers 2022 to 2025 and again 2026 to 2030.

The loop also shows Allied Universal security professionals screening with Garrett equipment, which is the partnership working the way it should: a security services company bringing the people and the posts, a detection company bringing the equipment, and the doctrine telling both what to look for. Garrett exhibited at Booth 3125 at GSX 2026 in Atlanta the same week our Chairman took the P.R.O. Model™ to the Allied Universal speaker stage. Chris speaks on that stage and in these pages as an active shooter expert, and the screening decision described above is one he puts in front of every leader he trains.

Common questions about Garrett Metal Detectors

How many sensitivity levels does the Garrett Guide have?

Seven, selectable on the unit, with a self-calibrating design, per Garrett’s product page. The wand alerts by tone or by vibration, and a rocker switch moves between the two.

Is the Garrett Paragon® certified?

Garrett lists the Paragon® as ECAC certified, the European Civil Aviation Conference standard for security screening equipment, and the product page carries the Active Shooter Prevention Project endorsement.

Can we see Garrett equipment in a prevention program before we buy?

Yes. Start with the loop above, then use the contact form and tell us your facility type and your throughput. We map screening into the full P.R.O. Model™ posture rather than selling it as a stand-alone purchase, and Garrett’s team joins that conversation when the site calls for it.

Related reading

• The ASPP™ Community of Experts, the partners behind every layer of the P.R.O. Model™.
• Allied Universal GSX 2026: ASPP™ on the Speaker Stage, the recap from Atlanta.
• Chris Parker, Garrett Metal Detectors, on the ASPP™ Advisory Board.
• P.R.O. Model™ workshops, where the screening decision gets made on purpose.
• The Active Shooter Expert, the pillar page on what the term should mean.

Sources and further reading

• Garrett Metal Detectors. Garrett Guide Hand-Held Metal Detector, product page and specifications. garrett.com
• Garrett Metal Detectors. Garrett Paragon® Walk-Through Metal Detector, product page and specifications. garrett.com
• Garrett Metal Detectors. Security detectors overview. garrett.com/security
• Garrett Metal Detectors. Trade show loop, published September 17, 2026. youtube.com
• Active Shooter Prevention Project. “Allied Universal GSX 2026: ASPP™ on the Speaker Stage,” September 17, 2026. aspppro.com

P.R.O. Model™, #NEVERHERE™ and ASPP™ are trademarks of the Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC. Garrett®, Paragon®, Ambiscan™, Quick-Q® and Zero Touch™ are marks of Garrett Metal Detectors.