Metro to Randomly Search Riders' Bags

"If they're going to check, they should check everyone," said Alexandria commuter Sandra Peterson as she entered the King Street Metro station yesterday.

Other riders compared the searches to restrictions imposed on those entering sporting events and said they would comply if it made the system more secure.

Transit systems in Boston and New Jersey have similar programs. In February, Amtrak began using mobile security teams to screen passengers and their carry-on bags along major routes, including Washington to Boston, and recently expanded to West Coast routes, including San Diego to San Jose.

Boston conducts hundreds of screenings a year, according to Paul MacMillan, acting transit police chief for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. There have been more than two dozen false alarms for explosives since the program began in 2006. Amtrak and Boston swab the outside of bags for explosives. If there is a positive readout, the bags are opened and searched by hand.

In New York, officers set up inspection posts about twice a month at each of 468 stations, according to Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, spokesman for the New York Police Department.

Unlike airline security measures, which are tested regularly by federal agencies to determine their effectiveness, ground transportation security measures have been subject to far fewer analyses, according to R. William Johnstone, a transportation security consultant who served on the staff of the 9/11 Commission.

A top official of the American Civil Liberties Union, which launched an unsuccessful challenge to New York's program, said the group would be "looking very carefully" at the Metro program. The program "doesn't make any sense," said Stephen Block, legislative counsel for the ACLU's National Capital region.

If a would-be terrorist finds random inspections taking place at one station, Block said, "he could just go up the escalator and go to a different station where bag searches are not taking place. . . . Assume they're doing searches at Farragut West. The bad guy simply goes to Farragut North."

Metro officials said police will give extra scrutiny to individuals who turn around or act suspiciously.

Security experts say such efforts are effective as part of a larger program. Michael Sheehan, a former senior NYPD counterterrorism official who helped put New York's program in place, said it is difficult to measure effectiveness. "When we established this in New York, it was to get cops more involved in stations, looking at bags," he said. The plan was not intended to be "a silver bullet to protect trains" but another measure to "keep terrorists off balance."

Random searches have been discussed by the Metro board in the past, usually in closed sessions. But board members had been reluctant to support them in the past, fearful of backlash from riders.

Staff writers Mark Berman, Carol D. Leonnig, Robin Shulman and Robert Thomson and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn will be conducting an online chat from 1:30 to 2 p.m. today athttp://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/10/27/DI2008102702325.html.