Some say the technology won’t make it safer if screeners and law enforcement don’t pay close attention
Officials walk past a new weapons detection system this week during a demonstration at the entrance to the B and D Metro train lines at Union Station in Los Angeles.
In an effort to prevent passengers from carrying handguns and knives onto its trains, LA Metro is testing a concealed weapons detection system at Union Station billed as added protection for rider safety, the agency reported on Wednesday, Oct. 23
The pilot program is part of a beefed up security protocol prompted by a spate of violent attacks since April that has plagued the county’s transit system. They included three murders and a huge spike in arrests of people carrying weapons onto the system.
“It is adding another layer looking at this societal challenge we have and finding ways to combat that,” summed up Robert Gummer, LA Metro deputy chief of system security and law enforcement.
In the last year, Metro reported 152 arrests for patrons with concealed weapons or brandishing weapons on the transit system. That represents a doubling of weapons-related arrests, Gummer said.
The Metro board voted in July to begin testing weapons detection systems.
This came after the fatal stabbing of 66-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz at 5 a.m. April 22 in an unprovoked attack on the B (Red) Line train at the Universal City Station in Studio City. Soza Arauz boarded the train in North Hollywood and was heading home from her job as a security guard at a North Hills restaurant. She managed to get off the train at the Universal City Station on the 3900 block of Lankershim Boulevard where she was found mortally wounded on the platform.
Two major incidents on Metro buses also prompted calls for more security.
Juan Luis Gomez-Ramirez, a teacher visiting from Mexico who was traveling on a Line 108 bus in Commerce was shot to death in the back of the head in an unprovoked attack in May. Four months later, a bus was hijacked on Sept. 25 in downtown Los Angeles by a gunman who killed a passenger.
Buses do not have the wavelength and infrastructure to make a video detection system operable, Gummer said. “We are working with vendors who claim they have solutions.”
The effort to install metal detectors at train stations was led by L.A. County Supervisor and Metro board chair Janice Hahn, who demanded Metro prevent people from carrying weapons onto the system. Board members recently toured new stadiums in Inglewood that use these advanced systems. Inglewood Mayor and Metro board member James Butts, Jr spearheaded this effort.
“This pilot (program) is a great first step and I look forward to expanding our use of weapons detection technology across our system,” said Hahn, who tested out the system at Union Station on Wednesday.
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