NATCHEZ — The metal detector installed last week at the Natchez Police Department should be operational this week.

Police Chief Danny White said the department and Natchez Municipal Court will partner to install half walls on each side of the detector to keep visitors from walking around it.

The detector has been placed in the building housing NPD and municipal court so that anyone entering the building from the front lobby to go to the municipal courtroom, records or other offices will be scanned.

A municipal court bailiff will be stationed at the detector to monitor it while those going to court enter the building.

The detector will be unmanned when court is not in session. White said, however, he will examine the department’s finances during the budgeting process for next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, to see if funding can be found to station an officer at the detector during business hours.

“I’d like to put a person out there all the time, but we will have to look at it during budgeting,” he said.

White has said after Jackson Police Detective Eric Smith was shot and killed inside police headquarters in April 2013, he decided the Natchez Police Department needed a metal detector.

The detector cost approximately $3,000, White said. NPD was originally going to purchase a detector for $5,000, but White said the department shopped around until it found a cheaper one.

Mayor Butch Brown has said the detector is a good investment, because it will help ensure the safety of the public, police and court personnel.