Category:

Subway Security

Subways remain unsecured in commuter rail security beef-up

by Benjamin Kabak March 22, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on March 22, 2007

MetroNorth trains will now feature Air Marshall since the trains fly. (Courtesy of flickr user PlasmoNYC)

First, I had to go Washington for some news about the subways, and now I’m venturing out to the ‘burbs. I’m not sure what’s worse. But either way, we’re talking about security today.

Metro New York reports that air marshals will soon be patrolling MetroNorth, LIRR and Staten Island Railway trains in an effort to protect these so-called soft terrorist targets. Suburban commuters, like those riding the subways, will also be subjected to random bag searches. Staten Islanders were celebrating this announcement as this is the first time their borough has been referred to something as complimentary as a soft target for terrorists.

The measures “will give our commuter railroads the kind of police presence our customers deserve and the post-9/11 environment requires,” said Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director Lee Sander, who added the initiative began last week with step-on train inspections by MTA officers and the deployment of 50 dogs trained to locate explosives. “This partnership demonstrates our capacity to enhance safety and security by putting aside political and jurisdictional boundaries that often block collaboration, communication and the constant exchange of information.”

The plan is permanent and is expected to cost the MTA up to $5 million per year in overtime costs, Sander said.

Personally, I’m skeptical. The Feds are still spending $7 on air security to every 1.5 cents spent on rail security, and I just don’t see MetroNorth and the LIRR – let alone the Staten Island Railway – as viable or important targets.

Meanwhile, as SUBWAYblogger noted yesterday, police in the subways will continue “pretending to do random screenings of bags.” I feel safer already.

March 22, 2007 2 comments

MTA Absurdity Subway Security

If you see something, blog about it

by Benjamin Kabak March 19, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on March 19, 2007

Don’t worry about terrorists; K9 Emily is on the prowl.

As I rode the uptown local from 66th St. to 96th St. this afternoon after catching a movie at the Lincoln Square Cinemas, my eye alit upon the ad above. Except it was in Spanish. So for four stops, I got a huge kick out of the ad that read, “Usted usa sus ojos. Ella usará su hocico.”

I’ll use my eyes; she can use her snout. I felt safer already.

Unbeknownst to me, I wasn’t the only one noticing the MTA’s ubiquitous yellow anti-terrorism ads urging individual attention to suspicious things in the subway. (And, no, we’re not talking about the guy selling pirated DVDs as suspicious as that may be.) Since I didn’t get a chance to read the Friday business section in The Times, I missed this brilliant article on the successes of the “If you see something, say something” advertising campaign.

The short version: In the post-9/11 climate, the MTA hired Korey Kay and Partners to come up with a catchy slogan. They’ve certainly succeed as more than 30 organizations worldwide now use some variation on the theme.

They include the Alexandria Transit Company in Virginia; the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia; Bay Area Rapid Transit; the Chicago Transit Authority; the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority; and TriMet in Portland, Ore.

“We wanted something that was punchy and catchy enough to not fade in the background,” said Christopher P. Boylan, a deputy executive director at the M.T.A., “and makes a connection with every one of our passengers.”

At the same time, said Allen Kay, chairman and chief executive at Korey Kay, “there was concern there could be backlash, concern we were using fear tactics,” so consumer research was used to determine perceptions of the theme.

While Kay may have been concerned about the negative backlash, I’m a bigger fan of all of the parodies that seem to find there ways around the Internet and the city. My all-time favorite I spotted a few months ago on a downtown E train. It said, “Bush is still President, say something.” Sadly, I couldn’t capture it for posterity, but others have. Let’s take a look. (All links pop to show the pictures.)

Some folks have taken to using pink pig stickers to lively up the posters. That’s just as good as drawing mustaches on news anchor’s faces. It never fails to amuse.

Then, there are those who edit the slogan a la the President Bush one. I’ve seen many. One of my favorites is “If you see something, run like hell.” That one is poignantly sad in its veracity.

But beyond humor, people have taken to using this slogan as a political statement. Here and here are political diatribes against the current administration.

And even the Spanish signs have provoked the ire of vandals and xenophobes everywhere. When The Post ran an op-ed piece against the Spanish signs during the height of the anti-immigration debate last year, some straphangers decided to cut out the column and stick them behind the plastic ad coverings in the subway. If you see something, say something indeed.

So then is this ad campaign a success? Well, it’s used the world over, and everyone in the city immediately knows what you’re talking about when you mention it. But it seems more humorous than anything else. Everyday, I see weird sh*t in the subway. If I said anything all the time, well, then I would just have to start a blog about it.

Hey, wait a second….

March 19, 2007 3 comments

Subway Security

NYC terror chief: Federal contributions to subway security woefully inadequate

by Benjamin Kabak March 9, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on March 9, 2007

A Circle Line train leaving Edgware Road on July 7, 2005, was one of three attacked in London. (Courtesty of flickr user otama)

Maybe in New York we overlook what happened in London in July of 2005. Maybe we chalk it up to the Olympics announcement and the Muslim-European tensions that have long been simmering in cities across the Atlantic from us. Or maybe we don’t focus on it because we’re afraid that it could happen here, and we don’t know how to protect ourselves from such an attack.

In fact, that’s exactly how New York’s anti-terrorism chief feels, and he let his feelings be known in Washington this week. Speaking in front of the House Homeland Security Committee this week, Deputy New York Police Department Commissioner Richard Falkenrath stressed the vulnerability of the New York City transportation system and the vulnerabilities in similar systems across the country. In his testimony, Falkenrath really laid into the politics and policies that plague the Department of Homeland Security, a government agency that has succumbed to politics in doling out its money. amNY reported:

Despite [22 bomb threats and 31 intelligence threats related to subway attack threats this year] and a spate of deadly train bombings in London, Madrid and Mumbai, India, Falkenrath, a former White House homeland security official, said the federal government has done little to protect the nation’s subway and rail systems.

“Given the severity of the terrorist threat to the U.S. mass transit system … the disparity between the federal investment in aviation security and … mass transit security is a national embarrassment,” he said…”Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the field of homeland security has been gripped by a mania for plans, strategies and other mandatory reports … They are of almost no value to operating agencies in the field; and they seem to be ignored by virtually everyone except the government contractors paid to verify that the reporting requirements have been met.”

As Falkenrath noted, even those plans approved by DHS don’t target the country’s vulnerable areas in a way acceptable to the people on the ground. For example, a proposed bill that would earmark $4 billion for rail and tunnel security in the U.S. allows for spending only on equipment and not the people needed to defend the subways.

“This bias pervades virtually all homeland security grant programs,” he said. “It is a reflection of the interests of government vendors, who sell more products, and federal auditors, whose jobs are simplified when grants can be connected to invoices.” You tell ’em, Richard.

Falkenrath, meanwhile, estimated that the city needs 2700 cops a day to guard the hundreds of exits and entrances into the subway system. Simply put, we need the money to pay people to defend the subways, fancy equipment or not.

Outrageously, though, as CBS reported tonight, the federal government is pandering to the people in spending. The government spends nearly $7.50 per passenger on airport security and just 1.5¢. This besides that fact that simply locking and reinforcing cockpit doors could stave off nearly every airplane hijacking attempt. But hey, we didn’t vote for Bush in 2000 or 2004; why should we get the money or sensible policies?

While federal agents in New York and Washington are attempting to teach old dogs new bombing sniffing tricks, something tells me that just won’t be enough. If someone’s about to blow themselves up in the subway, having a dog point out that fact will simply lead to one more dead dog.

While the editorial pages of the Daily News were the only ones to take a stand on this issue, calling, as I am, for the government to listen to the New York officials outlining what they need to protect the city’s subways.

In his testimony, Falkenrath painted a dire picture of an attack on New York’s subways. “I go to work every morning … with the mindset that today will be the day that terrorists strike New York City again. The most likely scenario, I believe, is an attack in the subway system with multiple, near-simultaneous satchel bombs,” he said.

To me, this doesn’t seem far-fetched. I was in Europe on July 7, 2005. I saw the reaction of the citizens of the EU as bombs exploded in London’s subways. Just days before, I was on the Metro in Madrid and Barcelona, blissfully unaware that anyone on the train could have been carrying a bomb.

In the States, we think of terrorism as grand acts. We think of airplanes striking buildings and men driving trucks filled with explosives into big stationery targets. But ask people in London, Dubai, Madrid and Tel Aviv. Ask them about suicide bombs on buses and near-simultaneous explosions on subways.

Do we in New York have to wait to become victims before the federal government will act appropriately? I sure hope not.

March 9, 2007 1 comment

MTA Economics MTA Politics Subway Security

Paper: City subways hard to secure from possible attacks

by Benjamin Kabak February 20, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on February 20, 2007

Bag inspectors working to guard the City’s subways. (Courtesy of flickr user Runs With Scissors.)

I’m not exactly going out a limb if I were to state: “New York City and, in particular, the subways should be considered high priority homeland security targets.” No, around these parts, that’s fairly common knowledge.

But 230 miles to the south, those in charge of the federal purse strings have been loathe to see things our way. The Department of Homeland Security, led and created by those Republicans who aren’t beholden to a New York voter base, has hardly been forthcoming in giving New York the money it needs to adequately protect itself from another possible terrorist attack. As the media has documented, low-population states such as Wyoming have long received more money per person than the coastal states. Wyoming is no terrorist target when compared to New York, Boston, Los Angeles or other coastal cities.

In fact, DHS did such a good job allocating money that last year, grants to Washington, D.C. and New York City were slashed. That means less money for the subway, less money for the ports, less money for the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and even the Washington Monument and Capitol building. That’s smart government.

So then, it comes as no surprise that U.S.A. Today recently noted that it is nearly impossible to protect the city’s subway system. Mimi Hall reported:

It has been a difficult, time-consuming effort just to get the work going, says William Morange, the transit authority’s security director. There are no 100-year-old records left behind to guide workers. No detailed descriptions of which parts of which tunnels were built in bedrock and which were dug out of silt.

Schiliro calls the MTA’s construction and other security upgrades “incremental risk reduction.” He says none of the nation’s subway systems will be as safe as they could be and should be without more help and money from the federal government.

This story is your typical “how to protect the subways” story, but it never hurts to see these reports in print. The litany of complaints is the same: There isn’t enough money; no government agency has ever completed an accurate risk assessment focusing on the subways in the urban (and largely liberal) areas of the country.

As U.S.A. Today noted the problem with protecting the subways, they also noted that the Democrats now in power in the halls of Congress are trying to secure more funding for subway security.

This is all well and good, but actual subway security only goes so far. There are too many access points, open areas and miles and miles of tracks to patrol. There are too many forgotten and neglected entrances and exits into the subway system, and too many nooks and crannies for everyone to inspect. I will always advocate more federal funds from DHS for security in New York City, but at the same time, I hope the Department is doing enough to protect the country from those who would perpetrate a terrorist attack in the subways. If we can prevent the terrorists — whoever they may be — from reaching the subways in the first place, we’ll have less to worry about underground as the subways continue to roll on.

February 20, 2007 0 comment

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