New York Starts to Inspect Bags on the Subways

Police Search Random Backpacks in New York City Subways 

SEWELL CHAN and KAREEM FAHIM / New York Times 22jul2005

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The police last night began random searches of backpacks and packages brought into the New York City subways as officials expressed alarm about the latest bomb blasts in the London transit system.

The searches, which will also include commuter rail lines, are not a response to a specific threat against the city, said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who authorized the searches shortly before he announced them at a morning news conference.

The police have previously inspected bags at major events like parades and demonstrations, and the authorities in Boston conducted random baggage searches on commuter rail lines during the Democratic National Convention last year, but officials here could not recall a precedent for a broad, systematic search of packages in the New York City subways, which provide 4.7 million rides each weekday.

At some of the busiest of the city's 468 stations, riders will be asked to open their bags for a visual check before they go through the turnstiles. Those who refuse will not be permitted to bring the package into the subway but will be able to leave the station without further questioning, officials said.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly promised "a systematized approach" in the searches and said the basis for selecting riders for the checks would not be race, ethnicity or religion. The New York Civil Liberties Union questioned the legality of the searches, however, and Mr. Kelly said department lawyers were researching the constitutional implications.

"Every certain number of people will be checked," Mr. Kelly said. "We'll give some very specific and detailed instructions to our officers as to how to do this in accordance with the law and the Constitution."

Paul J. Browne, a Police Department spokesman, said officers would focus on backpacks and containers that are large enough to carry explosive devices or ordnance. Officers are unlikely to search pocketbooks, he said. "We have some history of what those look like," he said. "They're bigger than a handbag."

Searches began last night at several stations, including 14th Street-Union Square in Manhattan and an undisclosed station along the No. 7 line near Shea Stadium, in Queens. Today, the first full day the searches will be conducted, two of the many stations to be checked are Woodlawn-Jerome Avenue, on the No. 4 line in the Bronx, and Lafayette Avenue on the A line in Brooklyn. Mr. Browne said the search policy would continue indefinitely.

Transit officials in several other cities - Boston, Washington and San Francisco - said they were considering similar measures, although few have actually started randomly checking bags. A spokesman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco said officials were not certain whether they have the legal authority for such searches. "This could be the lawyer's dream case," said the spokesman, Linton Johnson. "There is this balance of civil liberties and protection."

Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which carries 1.2 million subway and bus passengers each weekday, said officials in the capital would watch how the effort went in New York. "It could be an option for us," she said, "but we are not there yet in terms of an implementation plan."

After the July 7 explosions in London, transit officials in Atlanta and Salt Lake City notified passengers that they reserved the right to inspect packages and bags, but the number of searches has been very small. In Utah, where a 20-mile rail system carries 45,000 passengers a day, a total of two bags have been inspected.

In Boston, for two weeks before the Democratic convention, subway stations were selected at random and bags were checked before riders entered the system, said John Martino, deputy police chief at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Police ran swabs across the bags and then put the swabs in machines that could detect explosives. "When we did it, we actually had people asking to be screened," Chief Martino said yesterday in a telephone interview. "It makes them more comfortable knowing that it was being done."

William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, an industry group, said comprehensive coverage of any major urban transit system would be next to impossible. "If you were going to try to check a very high percentage at every station or on every train, it would be incredibly labor-intensive," he said.

Still, he said, the searches could deter would-be attackers and improve the public's confidence. "The public wants to feel safe, as well as be safe," he said. "So this has a benefit of perception."

Mr. Kelly said his department would "reserve the right" to expand the searches to buses and ferries, and he made it clear thatmany subway riders could be affected. "Ideally, it will be before you go through the turnstile," he said. "You have a right to turn around and leave, but we also reserve the right to do those types of searches if someone is already inside the system."

At the selected stations, as many as one in five or one in ten passengers may be picked for a search, said Mr. Browne. Supervisors will check that the searches are being randomly conducted, he said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said its own smaller police force would conduct similar searches on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. At Grand Central Terminal, an announcement was repeated over the loudspeakers last night: "Passengers are advised that their backpacks and other large containers are subject to random search by the police."

Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged that passengers might be inconvenienced. "It's a complex world where, sadly, there are a lot of bad people," he said. "We know that our freedoms are threatening to certain individuals, and there's no reason for us to let our guard down."

The mayor said he spoke with Gov. George E. Pataki and with the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, shortly after hearing about the attacks in London yesterday, two weeks to the day after four bombings in the transit system there killed 56 and injured 700.

The police will focus on stations with heavy Manhattan-bound traffic in the morning and on stations with commuters leaving Manhattan in the evening. Riders will be asked to open their bags or allow them to be sniffed by trained dogs.

Mr. Browne, the police spokesman, said, "Obviously we're going to use common sense for someone that appears to be an imminent threat." For example, he said, if a passenger with a large package had both fists clenched, police officers would be justified in asking him to stop for a search. Anyone found to be holding illegal drugs or weapons is subject to arrest, he said.

The Transit Bureau of the Police Department has 2,200 officers and 500 supervisors, and even with the hundreds more that have been added for subway patrols, it is unclear how many riders can feasibly be searched. At Times Square, for example, there are 165,876 turnstile clicks on a typical weekday. Some of the system's turnstiles are used by a dozen passengers a minute.

Mr. Browne said such searches had been discussed "from time to time, over the last three years." Some riders expressed cautious support. Hani Judeh, 24, a Palestinian-American medical student who lives in Brooklyn, said he shaved his beard, stopped speaking Arabic publicly and attended mosque less regularly after 9/11.

He said he favored the searches, as long as they did not involve racial profiling. "They should check bags, but they can't discriminate," he said. "You can't tell Indian from Pakistani, you can't tell West Indian from black, you can't tell Arab from Mediterranean."

Reporting for this article was contributed by Jennifer 8. Lee, Eric Lipton, Patrick McGeehan and Shadi Rahimi.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/nyregion/22york.html?pagewanted=print 21jul2005

New York Police to Search Backpacks on Transit System

CHRISTINE KEARNEY / Reuters 22jul2005

NEW YORK — Commuters on New York subways will be subjected to random searches of backpacks and packages, New York police said today just hours after the second attack on London's transit system in two weeks.

The additional security measure comes after four small coordinated explosions hit London's bus and underground train network, injuring one person, exactly two weeks after bombers killed more than 50 people in the British capital.

A leading civil liberties group said random searches ran counter to the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which prohibits "unreasonable searches" without "probable cause."

Security on New York's transit system had already been stepped up since the July 7 bombings in London, when three subway trains and a bus were targeted by suicide bombers.

Stressing there was no new threat against the city's transit system, New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters that the searches would take place mostly at subway stations and possibly as people board city buses.

"We will be instituting random searches of packages and backpacks as people enter the transit system," Kelly said, adding that "no racial profiling will be allowed."

But Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said, "The Fourth Amendment prohibits police from conducting searches where there is no suspicion of criminal activity."

"One of the dangers of random searches is that they can invite the possibility of racial, ethnic or religious profiling," she said, adding that the plan would inconvenience people "as police go about finding a needle in a haystack."

Kelly said most searches would take place before passengers passed through turnstiles, but there would also be searches on subway platforms and on trains.

A Quinnipiac University poll on Wednesday revealed that 72 per cent of New Yorkers fear an attack like the July 7 bombings in London would occur in New York.

New York has been on high alert for another attack since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks which felled the World Trade Center twin towers and killed nearly 3,000 people. The initiative is just the latest to protect New York's subway system, which averages 4.5 million riders on weekdays. Last week Kelly said police officers would approach commuters and tell them how to spot a potential suicide bomber.

"We just live in a world where sadly these kinds of security measures are necessary," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who often rides the subway to work.

"Are they intrusive? Yes, a little bit, but we are trying to find that right balance between making sure that terrorists are off guard," he said.

Bloomberg said the searches would be restricted to the transit system and New Yorkers should not expect random searches while walking on city streets.

"We don't have any plans to stop people walking down the street. We probably don't have the legal right to do it," Bloomberg said.

source: 21jul2005

New York Police Begin Random Bag Search in Subway

Xinhua (China) 22jul2005

Security on New York City mass transit system has been tightened again as police began random bag searches on subway and bus riders following a fresh wave of bombing attacks in London Thursday.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told a press conference that police have begun randomly searching subway passengers carrying bags or backpacks, and may conduct similar searches aboard city buses.

"It might slow individuals down, but we will do it in a reasonable way," he said, adding that the random search would be a "systematized approach" to checking bags.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said despite the precautions, New Yorkers should go about their normal lives.

"I want to emphasize that there is still no threats to this city that have been explicitly made or to our subway or bus system, people should go ahead and feel comfortable in using it," he said.

Four small blasts forced the evacuation of three London underground railway stations and a double-decker bus Thursday, but so far there have been reports of only one person injured.

Kelly said the searches will be done before passengers enter the subway, generally before they swipe their MetroCards.

"Ideally it will be before you go through the turnstile, you have a right to turn around and leave," Kelly said. "But we also reserve the right to do those types of searches if in fact someone is already inside the system."

Following London blasts last week, New York police have tightened security on mass transit system, one of the biggest in the nation. These measures include increasing police presence in all transportation hubs, sending an officer on each train during rush hours, and monitoring subway tunnels that cross the rivers 24 hours a day.

source: http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-07/22/content_462361.htm 21jul2005