Los Angeles will be first to use subway scanners

The Los Angeles subway will become the first mass transit system in the country to install body scanners that screen passengers for weapons and explosives, officials said Tuesday.

The use of the portable scanners, which project waves to do full-body screenings of passengers walking through a station without slowing them down, will begin in the coming months, said Alex Wiggins, who runs the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s law enforcement division.

The machines, being purchased from British firm Thruvision, scan for metallic and non-metallic objects on a person’s body, can detect suspicious items from 30 feet away and have the capability of scanning more than 2,000 passengers per hour.

“We’re looking specifically for weapons that have the ability to cause a mass-casualty event,” Wiggins said. “We’re looking for explosive vests, we’re looking for assault rifles. We’re not necessarily looking for smaller weapons that don’t have the ability to inflict mass casualties.”

In addition to the Thruvision scanners, the agency is also planning to purchase other body scanners that have the ability to move around and home in on specific people and angles, Wiggins said.

He would not say how many of the machines were being purchased. Employees and police officers first have to be trained on how to use the equipment.

Signs will be posted at stations warning passengers they are subject to body scanner screening. Customers who choose not be screened won’t be able to ride on the subway.

“I guess it is a good, precautionary thing,” Andrea Kirsh said, a 22-year-old student from Oregon, who was traveling through Los Angeles’ Union Station on Tuesday. “It makes me feel safe. As a civilian I think we often don’t know what to look for or what we would be looking for.”

The Los Angeles subway system counted more than 112 million rides last year, officials said.