LA Subway System to Body Scan Passengers for Weapons, Explosives

The Los Angeles Metro will begin body scanning passengers for weapons and explosives, according to a report.

The Associated Press reports that the portable scanners will be able to detect weapons and explosives without slowing down passengers, and “can detect suspicious items from 30 feet (9 meters) away and have the capability of scanning more than 2,000 passengers per hour.”

Though the screening will be “voluntary,” those who refuse to be screened “won’t be able to ride on the subway.”

“We’re dealing with persistent threats to our transportation systems in our country,” claimed TSA administrator David Pekoske. “Our job is to ensure security in the transportation systems so that a terrorist incident does not happen on our watch.”

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Alex Wiggins further explained that the scanners would be “looking specifically for weapons that have the ability to cause a mass-casualty event.”

“We’re looking for explosive vests, we’re looking for assault rifles. We’re not necessarily looking for smaller weapons that don’t have the ability to inflict mass casualties,” he expressed, adding, “We really want to be effective and we need the ability to have a fixed field of view, but we also need to be able to move that field of view as necessary.”

“Deploying these technologies together gives us that accuracy and minimizes any delays,” proclaimed Wiggins, who declared that the scanners would be implemented in the “coming months.”

In 2013, Jalopnik rated the Los Angeles Metro as the tenth worst public transit system in the world, behind Mumbai, Manila, and São Paulo, while in 2015, it was reported that one in five passengers were sexually harassed on Los Angeles’ subway, buses, and trains.

In April, it was reported that the Los Angeles Metro was considering putting showers for homeless people near its stations.