My dad used to tell a story about an experience he had when stationed in Manila during the Vietnam War. He was riding a city bus through downtown dressed in his Air Force blues. As his stop approached he began to move toward the bus door, and he noticed that each step he took brought giggles from passengers nearby.
Pop looked down to make sure his zipper was up. All systems go there. He reached around to grab his back pocket, which contained his wallet, and quickly realized what the fuss was about. A pickpocket seated behind him had dissected and removed the entire backside of his trousers—pocket, wallet and all. When he told the story he chalked it up to the hazards of riding public transportation in a big city.
I would never equate this event with the train and subway bombings in Madrid and in London. But it does beg the question: How much security should a passenger using public transportation expect?
Americans use public transportation 32 million times a day—16 times more often than they travel on domestic airlines. Yet according to William Miller, president of the American Public Transportation Association, when it comes to security, public transportation riders are treated as “second-class citizens by the federal government.”
“You can’t do anything to prevent something like this from happening with 100% assurance. But there needs to be a minimal standard of expectations, and with current spending on public transportation security by the federal government, I don’t feel we are giving our passengers even that expectation,” said Miller.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently voiced his intention to move the burden of funding the protection of public transportation to the states and away from the feds. To support this idea, Chertoff cited that a fully loaded commercial airliner has the potential to kill 3,000 people, while a subway bomb might only kill 30. If I remember correctly, the bombings in Madrid killed hundreds. That fact is not lost on Miller
“We can make what is already a safe mass transportation system even safer by just implementing some commonsense technology and logistical approaches to security. We should make sure we take appropriate steps to implement proven military security technology that is already being used and test its feasibility for the public sector,” said Miller. “We need to work in complement with our police forces and all first responders when it comes to communication and emergency operations, so that when something does happen everyone is on the same page.”
Unfortunately for the American traveling public, the U.S. Senate in July rejected a plan to spend $1.16 billion on mass transit security, favoring instead a $200 million proposal. Maybe riding San Francisco’s BART is not smart after all.
If you have any questions or comments for Steve Lasky regarding this issue or any other, please e-mail him at [email protected].
Steve Lasky | Editorial Director, Editor-in-Chief/Security Technology Executive
Steve Lasky is Editorial Director of the Endeavor Business Media Security Group, which includes SecurityInfoWatch.com, as well as Security Business, Security Technology Executive, and Locksmith Ledger magazines. He is also the host of the SecurityDNA podcast series. Reach him at [email protected].
