Tighter transit security needed now
Threat of terrorist attacks requires random screening on SkyTrain and West Coast Express
Gordon Keast, Special to the Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Terrorist attacks on our transit system are no longer unthinkable.
Security experts have estimated that 20 per cent of all jihadist attacks executed since 9/11 have targeted urban mass transportation systems. Witness the recent deadly transit bombings of the commuter train system in Madrid in 2004, the London Underground and bus bombings in 2005, and the Mumbai rail bombings in 2006.
Although statistically still remote, the possibility of a terrorist attack in the Vancouver area has increased with Canada's role in Afghanistan and the 2010 Winter Olympics.
To help counter this threat, TransLink is spending $23 million on the "physical hardening" of the mass transit system in Metro Vancouver. This includes sophisticated new cameras and video software, lights, "smart fences" able to detect human motion, chemical sensors for SkyTrain and the West Coast Express, and a host of other measures such as counter-terrorism training for transit police.
Although TransLink recognizes it is virtually impossible to protect the transit system from dedicated suicide bombers or to eliminate all terrorist threats, it is implementing many of the recommendations contained in a confidential $218,000 terrorism risk assessment report completed earlier this year. The report examines security gaps and vulnerabilities in SkyTrain and the West Coast Express.
Expect to see a new incident warning system with threat levels of low, medium, high and imminent. TransLink security experts are also working to develop a response system with "good bounce-back" should a terrorist attack or serious threat occur.
With that in mind, TransLink has issued a request for proposals for a business continuity plan that will ensure that SkyTrain and West Coast Express are able to respond rapidly and effectively to security-related incidents and to quickly resume critical operations following a significant security event or terrorist crisis.
An upgraded public awareness campaign could begin as soon as this fall. Based on the "See Something, Say Something" concept, it would encourage members of the public to become the eyes and ears of the transit system by reporting abandoned bags, parcels, or suspicious activity. The intensity of the public awareness messages would be linked to actual threat levels.
These are all positive steps. But in the interests of public safety, and with just 18 months before the 2010 Olympics, we should also now seriously begin conducting random screening checks of passengers boarding SkyTrain and the West Coast Express.
Although such a system would not provide absolute protection against acts of terrorism, it could deter or redirect terrorists to other less vulnerable targets, according to a study on passenger screening prepared by the U.S.-based Mineta Transportation Institute. As a secondary benefit it might also reduce the number of weapons and drugs carried on our mass transit system.
Not all passengers would be screened of course.
SkyTrain carries some 235,000 passengers a week and the West Coast carries more than 10,000. It would be impossible to screen everyone given the sheer numbers and delays that would result.
However, following the example of New York and its subway screening system, passenger screening on SkyTrain and the West Coast Express could be done on a random basis.
A handheld computer can easily be used to randomly generate numbers from 0 and 999 for each passenger moving through screening checkpoints. Those whose number is less than 50, for example, could be selected for screening. Those who refuse to be screened and have their tote bags, backpacks, briefcases or other "baggage" checked at station entrances, would be denied access to trains at that particular station.
The stations where passenger screening is conducted would also be rotated on a random basis to avoid predictability. Racial or ethnic profiling would be prohibited.
During times of low threat levels, a minimal number of passengers would be screened. As threat levels increase, more security personnel could be deployed and the numbers screened at individual stations could be increased and "surge security" operations put in place. At such times, screening could conceivably be expanded to include additional "stop and frisk" procedures as well as bomb-sniffing dogs or explosives tracing technology.
Passenger screening is something we've come to expect -- at airports. It is not something most of us want to see incorporated into our mass transit system. But we live in a changed world as recent events tragically remind us. Vancouver is not immune from terrorist attacks and mass transit systems are prime targets.
Screening of passengers boarding SkyTrain and the West Coast Express is a prudent and necessary measure as we count down to the 2010 Olympics.
Gordon Keast is a writer based in Surrey.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
