Metro News Release
For immediate release: September 9, 2003
Top reasons why Metro riders are safer now than they were before September 11, 2001
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) has been working non-stop since September 11, 2001, to ensure the safety of its system, both bus and rail. Now that the second anniversary of the tragic events of September 11 is nearing, Metro is providing a summary of the many ways Metro riders are safer now than before that tragic day. These reasons include:
❏ More officers have been added to the Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD), which brings the department total to 373 officers.
❏ Eight additional K-9 dogs have been added to the MTPD canine force.
❏ Recycle bins were reconfigured to make it more difficult for anyone to place a harmful device inside; trash bins are no longer located on platforms and those on mezzanines are now bomb-containment receptacles.
❏ Metro now has the capability to safely and effectively decontaminate trains and buses of most biological agents in the event of exposure (the first transit system in the world to be able to do so).
❏ Chemical sensors have been installed in undisclosed stations; emergency safety drills have been conducted regularly with regional partners (also the first transit system in the world to have such a capability).
❏ MTPD has full-time, regular participation on the FBI Anti-Terrorism Task Force.
❏ MTPD officers have access to explosive detection equipment and radiation detection equipment.
❏ 100 Metrobuses had digital video recording equipment installed on them.
❏ Cameras located in Metrorail stations now record events.
❏ Metro regularly coordinates with the region on emergency preparedness and planning; participates in regular coordination drills with regional emergency agencies; and prepared one of the first Continuity of Operations Plans in the metropolitan area, which is also used in role playing emergency scenarios.
❏ Metro employees have been receiving training to help safely evacuate customers from trains and rail stations in the case of an emergency. To date, more than 1,000 employees have received this training.
❏ Metro partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration, and the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area to provide transit-related emergency preparedness tips to Metro customers via the brochure, Together, We Prepare. Metro has also produced a CD ROM on train and bus evacuation, now available to area employers on line and by request. The Authority also distributes periodic Dear Fellow Rider brochures from Metro CEO Richard A. White and Metro Chief of Police Polly Hanson to customers about safety and security issues.
" These and other steps the Authority has taken will ensure a greater degree of safety for employees and customers," stated Police Chief Hanson. " One of the best deterrents of any unwanted act occurring in the system is the extension of the eyes and ears of our police force by our nearly 10,000 employees and the hundreds of thousands of passengers who daily are in our system. Whenever a customer sees anything suspicious or unusual, he or she can contact us 24 hours, seven-days-a-week, at 202-962-2121.
" We work hand-in-hand with the leadership and front-line employees here at Metro to make sure that, as a system, we are doing whatever we can in the way of training, technology, and safe practices to safeguard the system, our passengers, employees, and the system itself," noted Fred Goodine, Assistant General Manger for Safety and Risk Protection. " We can never rest on our laurels and must remain ever vigilant for those ways in which we can continuously improve."
News release issued on September 9, 2003.