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NEW YORK — After a mass shooting on a New York City subway train, the mayor came up with a hi-tech idea: to install scanners that can get someone with a gun into the public transit system before they even have a chance to use it.
There is technology that quickly scans large numbers of people for weapons and is currently used to screen people in places like sports stadiums and amusement parks.
But security experts say it would be difficult, if not impossible, to deploy such a system to make a difference to the city’s sprawling, porous subway system.
The problem isn’t necessarily technology – rather the fact that human operators must accompany scanners to confront people who illegally carry firearms.
“Logistically, that would be a nightmare. You’re going to have to hook up a lot of officers doing that,” said James Dooley, retired New York Police Department captain who served in the division’s transit division.
Mayor Eric Adams, a former police chief, acknowledged the challenges but said the system might be worth trying in certain places as a deterrent.
“We want to be able to stop abruptly at a station somewhere so people don’t know it’s there,” Democrat said, “similar to what we do when we do car checkpoints.”
In April, the push for better subway safety was again urgent after a gunman threw a smoke grenade and set fire to the subway compartment, injuring 10 people.
Then, on May 22, another gunman killed a passenger in what officials said was a random attack.
The day after this murder, Adams again expressed his interest in gun scanning technology. And soon, mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas intensified the debate over how to handle gun violence.
On the New York City subway, scanning is unlike airport checkpoints, which is an untenable solution for a system of 472 stations, all with multiple entrances. Instead, Adams referred to a technology that uses sensors to detect metal but can also determine the shape of an object, such as a gun, as people pass uninterruptedly.
Boston-based company Evolv is using the technology at professional sports stadiums in Atlanta and Nashville, the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and in a recent test, facilities at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, though not on any public transportation. systems.
According to the company, the scanners can scan 3,600 people per hour. They can also produce false positives from items like Chromebooks, though.
In an email, Dana Loof, Evolv’s chief marketing officer, said false positives are “lower” than traditional metal detectors, but acknowledged that transit systems pose unique challenges.
“Any technology is just one part of the solution that includes security professionals, the operational environment, and the protocols they follow,” Loof said. Said.
Los Angeles Metro spokesman Dave Sotero said similar scanning devices made by QinetiQ, a UK-based defense technology company, were part of a pilot program on the Los Angeles public transit system in 2018 and are now in use as threat levels rise. Machines reflect scanning waves from a distance to passers-by.
Identifying someone with a gun is only half the battle.
“It’s also manpower,” said Donell Harvin, a senior policy researcher at Rand Corp. and a former chief of security for the Washington DC government.
Adams did not publicly explain how much the machines and running them could cost New York, but Harvin acknowledged that the price could be high.
“If you have a determined attacker, you won’t just have a security guard there; You’re going to need a police officer,” said Harvin. You can power up any station, but who wants to pay a $10 fee? Because the cost will be passed on to the rider.”
Yet because you can’t put police in every car and every station, Harvin said, “You have to invest in some technology.”
“It’s very complicated, but people need to get together and talk about it because what’s being done right now isn’t cutting it.”
Violent attacks in New York City’s subway system are relatively rare compared to above-ground crimes. And the city in general is one of the safest major cities in the country.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has damaged people’s sense of security, as has been the case with a number of high-profile crimes, including the fatally pushing of a woman in front of a train by a man who was later found to be too mentally ill to be prosecuted. In response, MTA said it will test safety barriers at some stations.
The number of transit system crimes reported by the NYPD so far this year has been at the same level as in the pre-pandemic years, but the public perception is that there is a new rebellion underground.
The Metropolitan Transport Authority has managed to assign 1,000 more police officers to the system, but its chairman, Janno Lieber, was candid last week when asked about the current climate.
“This week is a terrible week,” he said, referring to the May 22 attack. “I can’t say ‘Don’t be afraid’ to any New York subway driver this week because what happened is a terrible nightmare.”
Any viable security upgrade should likely encompass a number of measures, experts said.
Dooley envisioned a limited recruitment of officers using handheld metal detectors at high-traffic stations, but acknowledged that this would only cover a fraction of the system’s vast territory and could lead to civil liberties complaints, including the potential for racial profiling.
Police officers already check people’s bags on the spot at some subway entrances, but these checks are so infrequent that most people get on for years without being called.
Dorothy Moses Schulz, a retired police captain on the MTA’s MetroNorth rail system and emeritus professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has recommended more police on subways, and an ongoing commitment to addressing homelessness is “to send a message that we have a message.” might help. I’m trying to make it an orderly system that will bring people back.”
“If more people feel the system is working, they will come back, and when more come back, this system becomes more secure,” he said.
Lieber said last week that the agency is open to new approaches.
“We are serious about exploring each of these technologies,” he said. “I think we’ll get there, but it’s a matter of time and technology development.”
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