(The following article by Frank Main was posted on the Chicago Sun Times website on March 4.)
CHICAGO — Bomb-sniffing dogs that protect the Chicago area’s commuter rail system were up to snuff Friday in a test Metra arranged after a CBS2/Chicago Sun-Times investigation raised questions about the effectiveness of the dogs and their handlers, a spokeswoman for the agency said.
Metra will continue to use the bomb detection dogs provided by Securitas Inc. because they met U.S. Police Canine Association standards in the test in west suburban Addison, said Judy Pardonnet, a Metra spokeswoman.
The tests were in response to a hidden camera investigation that showed a bomb dog and handler at Ogilvie Transportation Center did not react last month when a secret tester walked past the team with luggage containing a substance used in bombs.
The investigation also revealed the dogs and handlers spent hours idly waiting for orders by Metra police to inspect suspicious packages.
“We have revamped the way they work,” Pardonnet said.
Metra officials who viewed the CBS2 video said they were concerned by the Securitas teams’ lack of activity in five separate visits to Metra stations.
Performance defended
As a result, Metra ordered Securitas to conduct regular sweeps of Metra property for hidden explosives, in addition to responding to orders to search suspicious packages.
Securitas, which holds a two-year, $600,000 contract with Metra, defended the performance of the dog that was videotaped in last month’s secret test.
The dog was not trained to detect passing scents of explosives, a company official said. Also, the dog was not actively sniffing for explosives because the handler did not give the dog a command to search, the official said. The dog was “at rest” while the handler waited for a call to search a suspicious package, according to Securitas.
Pardonnet said Metra will explore adding “personnel screening” dogs that are trained to alert their handlers to explosives on passing commuters — such as the suicide bombers that carried out last year’s deadly London attack.
Atlanta’s MARTA rail system uses such personnel screening dogs, trained at Auburn University.
MARTA also has dogs trained only to search for explosives hidden on trains, platforms and other MARTA property and in suspicious packages. Those dogs were provided by the federal Transportation Security Administration.
MARTA has a total of nine bomb-detection dogs, compared with two Securitas teams that normally monitor Metra’s downtown stations. Securitas can provide more dogs when needed, Pardonnet said.
‘More is always better’
Metra recently rejected a TSA offer for free bomb-detection dogs and training. Metra would have been required to provide the police officers, vehicles, facilities and supervisor to handle them, Pardonnet said.
A MARTA spokeswoman would not say how many of its nine bomb dogs are for personnel screening and how many are TSA-trained.
“The way MARTA utilizes them, they do a good job,” said John Pearce, deputy director of the Canine Detection Training Center at Auburn University.
Asked if Metra should use personnel screening dogs, Pearce would only say, “More is always better. You can’t go wrong with more.” He would not comment specifically on Metra’s security program.
Pearce was part of a team of independent experts who agreed to supervise Friday’s tests of Securitas’ dogs and handlers. Metra stopped using two other contractors last year after their bomb-dog teams flunked similar tests to sniff out explosives.