(The following article by Raphael Lewis was posted on the Boston Globe website on June 8.)
BOSTON — Next month, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will become the first transit agency in the nation to institute a permanent policy of randomly inspecting passenger bags and packages on subway and commuter trains, MBTA police officials disclosed yesterday.
The stop-and-search procedure, largely prompted by the March 11 train bombings that killed 191 people in Spain, will involve explosive-sniffing dogs and all 247 uniformed MBTA police officers, and is set to be in place for July’s Democratic National Convention, MBTA T Police Chief Joseph Cartercq told the Globe.
“I have no trepidation about being first,” Carter said. “I don’t want to be the first to do an interview about having a serious incident that may have some terrorist indications to it. I want to be in a position to prevent and detect and apprehend someone prior to them causing damage. We want to do this to encourage people to feel safe on the MBTA, to utilize public transportation.”
The policy comes was made public only weeks after the MBTA announced a controversial decision to begin requesting identification from T passengers police perceive as acting “suspiciously.”
Since the Madrid bombings, which were allegedly carried out by Al Qaeda terrorists who concealed explosives in their backpacks, counterterrorism agencies across the globe have concluded that subway and commuter rail operations are possible targets. In London, police reacted to the bombings by issuing new security guidelines that allow officers to stop and search passengers and their bags if riders are acting suspiciously.
Last month, the US Transportation Security Administration unveiled a pilot program to screen the bags of all passengers at a single Maryland Rail Commuter station in suburban New Carrollton.
But the MBTA policy would be far more ambitious — and in the eyes of civil libertarians, far more invasive — as police conduct random inspections of bags and briefcases that are not tied to suspicious behavior. The policy is being developed in coordination with the TSA and with several other transit agencies in the United States and abroad, Carter said. It is not yet fully developed, he added.
MBTA Deputy Police Chief John Martino, who is overseeing the development and implementation of the policy, said police, some accompanied by explosive-sniffing dogs, will randomly pick out riders for inspection throughout the transit system daily. If the dogs are present — there are only four used by the force currently — riders would not have to open their bags, but make them available for the dogs to sniff, Martino said.
If no dogs are present, “a brief opening and a quick look in will usually be enough to judge if there’s any cause for alarm,” Martino said. “Wherever possible, we would use an explosive-detection canine that would just sniff — no requirement to open them at all in that case.”
Martino said, however, that the number of inspections would increase dramatically during the convention at the end of July, just as thousands of commuters who normally drive to work will cram onto subways and commuter rail trains because of extensive road and highway closures. He also said riders can expect the number of inspections to increase whenever the US Homeland Security Department changes the color-coded threat advisory to orange or red, the highest levels.
Martino would not specify how many bag inspections will be conducted, either during the convention or at times when the threat level is not elevated.
Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said she understands the need to increase vigilance on the region’s rail and bus systems, but contended that the system being devised by the MBTA is deeply flawed and may violate the US Constitution’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure.
“The Fourth Amendment doesn’t stop at your wrist when you carry a briefcase; it includes your bag,” Rose said. “It either has to be truly random, or it has to have a root in a reasonable basis of suspicion.”
“What does random mean? How do you ensure that is random?” Rose continued. “That means no discretion at all.”
Rose dismissed comparisons of the T’s policy to baggage checks at the nation’s airports and called the move excessive.
“It’s not imaginable to stop everybody getting on trains for their morning commute, and let’s face it, a train doesn’t have the same mass killing potential that a hijacked airplane does. You can’t drive a train into a skyscraper.”
T riders told by a reporter about the bag inspection policy yesterday reacted with a mixture of terrorism-weary resignation, annoyance, and in some cases, skepticism that police officers were capable of carrying out a truly random search system.
Alejandro Roberts, 25, a filmmaker from Dorchester interviewed at the JFK-UMass Red Line station, said he would be upset if such a search were to make him late for an appointment, but expressed greater worries about the specter of racial profiling.
Pamela Pratt, 46, a hospital supervisor from Randolph, said , “We all know who will be stopped — black people like me or my brothers.”
Other passengers, however, said they understood that they may have to give up some privacy to protect against attacks such as those that occurred in Madrid.
“It’s a gray area,” said Caleb Charland, 23, a Dorchester photographer. “I don’t want people searching my bags, but if it increases safety, I understand.”
Carter, who confirmed that the agency was developing the plans, said T officials have not announced the policy because he and other police officials are still working out the details on how to balance security and privacy concerns.
“Everything we do here is to protect and uphold and defend the constitutional rights of everyone, particuarly our patrons on the system,” Carter said. “That is one of the reasons why the policy is not something that is just sitting there, ready for us to publish tomorrow morning. . . . How do we do this to make sure constitutional rights are in place? We don’t want to abridge those rights, but in this era, we need the highest degree of security.”
Carter said he is determined to have the baggage inspection procedure in place for the Democratic convention, which has been deemed a special “national security” event by the US Secret Service.
“We’re on a very tight clock here; we’re working feverishly to come to a finalized policy,” Carter said. “We will meet with various groups, particularly the leading civil rights groups about this, but we will not be deterred in ensuring we have the highest level of security for the convention.”
Carter and his deputies said the cost of the new program would be minimal because the force, including canine units, is already patrolling stations.
Last month, T police announced that the entire force has been receiving counterterrorism training that includes spotting suspicious behavior. The ACLU and riders groups, fearful that the policy could lead to random ID checks, have contended that the stops represent an unwarranted intrusion. But T officials insist that the “behavior pattern recognition” training that all officers are receiving is geared toward security, and not to pestering riders.
Martino said the T Police Department is seeking to double the size of the dog unit to spread the baggage inspections across the vast transit system.
For now, however, Deputy T Police Chief Thomas McCarthy, who oversees intelligence operations, expressed confidence that the heightened presence of police officers will send a message that the MBTA is not a good place for terrorists to attack.
“You send a message that we’re a harder target than some other place,” McCarthy said. “That will hopefully make it safer.”