According to as-e.com (the manufacturer), the backscatter vans are safe to use with occupants in the vehicle; transmissive search are not. Transmissive gets used for cargo search, since it's better at penetrating. The transmissive scanners have a big boom which arches over the suspect vehicle, emitting, with the receiver mounted in the body of the vehicle.
Some of AS-E's trucks do both, apparently.
I agree, these vans could probably be used in occupants-still-in-vehicle mode, but there are a lot of reasons why taking the occupants out will probably still be done. In a bomb situation, you want them under your control and not able to trigger it as readily. You also get a cleaner scan with less human obstruction in the vehicle; humans are going to show up as solid objects in the scan, so hiding other stuff in the middle would be a threat.