Situation: Gathering intelligence for investigations challenged Moniteau County staff because of its restricted
vailability of resources. The other obstacle was time constraints when dealing with third party vendors or state agencies. Sheriff Tony Wheatley explains time was wasted waiting on valuable evidence that often became unusable because it was too old by the date it was received by his office from these other providers.

Results: Moniteau County added Guarded Exchange, which offers investigative products and services aimed at predicting and even stopping illegal activity before it occurs.

Guarded Exchange offers the sheriff’s office the monitoring of phone calls, 60 to 90 days prior to a trial, to alert facility staff of any new evidence to further the investigation.

“Securus’ Guarded Exchange has aided on several phone extractions where we needed that information, sooner rather than later,” stated Wheatley. “We can’t afford to wait around for valuable investigative evidence.”

He adds that his office also relies on Securus Technologies® for cold cases. Those that have proven to have been most instrumental are cell phone extractions using Securus’
Guarded Exchange K9s.

Additionally, while competitors talk about solutions, Securus solves real problems faced by its correctional partners. Guarded Exchange monitors non private calls for customers to reveal the whereabouts of suspected criminals before illegal acts are committed. This service gives agencies strong evidence needed for prosecutions.

Monitoring excludes calls to numbers designated by our correctional partners as private, such as those of attorney phone numbers, because these calls are not recorded and
cannot be monitored. Therefore, attorney client privileged calls are not monitored.

The case of Jessi Jayne Bull is an example of a crime that was prevented in its tracks. This drug crime, Wheatley says, has become commonplace in this area of the state. The press release distributed by his sheriff’s office on February 15, 2019, states that Bull had bond set at $50,000 for a possible attempt to deliver a controlled substance (meth) into a Missouri DOC facility.

Wheatley was tipped off by a call from a Missouri DOC investigator saying that Securus had been monitoring calls about a drug drop at Tipton Correctional Center.

“Guarded Exchange had latched on to a series of calls from Bull that she was going to attempt to deliver on February 15, 2019,” Wheatley explained.

Thanks to the tip, DOC investigators were waiting for the suspect’s arrival on that date, inside the facility. Meanwhile, Wheatley and his detectives arrived at Tipton in unmarked vehicles and kept the suspect under surveillance in the parking lot and followed her inside. Bull cooperated with officers who interrogated her and later confessed her guilt.

“She did admit that the drugs were administered inside her person,” Wheatley stated.

He adds that she was going to pass the contraband to her incarcerated male friend. Bull was taken to Moniteau County Sheriff’s Office where she was arrested.

On September 27, 2019, she was prosecuted. She pled guilty to delivery of a controlled substance and was placed on Suspended Imposition of Sentence (SIS) with five
years of probation.

“This case would’ve never been caught before our use of Securus’ Guarded Exchange”, stated Wheatley.

The sheriff explains that it is Securus’ specialized technology which makes a positive impact on investigations.

“Guarded Exchange saves us time and manpower on investigating. Securus saves us on K9 costs and staff for those investigations as well as cell phone extractions,” Wheatley concluded. “‘It saves us a lot of time, and time is money.”