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Body Scanners Are Coming To LA Metro Stations. Here's What We Know About Them
Officials with Metro and the federal Transportation Security Administration test "passive" body scanner at the Seventh Street-Metro Center Station downtown Los Angeles. (File photo by Kyle Stokes/KPCC-LAist)
Los Angeles Metro's subway system will become the first in the nation to install body scanners that screen passengers for weapons and explosives -- without slowing them down at security lines.
Metro worked with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to develop the portable technology, and ultimately purchased several (get ready) "Thruvision TAC-TS4 portable terahertz millimeter wave passenger screening devices." The scanners will rolling out later this year.
The scanners can identify objects hidden in clothing or strapped to a person that block the naturally-occurring waves produced by the human body, according to Metro. Those blocked waves are detected and displayed for authorities as either a black spot or a colored indicator on a "generic avatar" of the person being screened.
(Courtesy Los Angeles Metro)
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The scanners don't emit any radiation or display anatomical details, Metro said.
Speaking during a press event Tuesday at Union Station, L.A. County Supervisor and Metro Board Chair Sheila Kuehl said the new scanners "will augment our aggressive safety and security posture and help us proactively deter potential attacks to our system."
Metro had been testing technology at its downtown 7th Street/Metro Center Station since last year. In Sept. 2017, KPCC/LAist reporter Kyle Stokes got to see the testing in action and spoke with Eric Miller, a professor at L.A.'s Loyola Law School who specializes in policing issues.
While Miller credits Metro for exploring technology that could minimize racial profiling, he said the scanners do raise several privacy concerns. Here's what he told KPCC last September:
"They're deploying a device that shows a mass on an individual's body and backpack" -- and, he argued, evidence of a mass on someone's body is not on its own enough to give a police officer probable cause to conduct a search.
"That strikes me as an incredibly crude way of trying to work out whether people are carrying dangerous devices," he continued. "It only benefits us if there's a lot of other evidence that would suggest that a particular station is currently vulnerable or not. Otherwise they're just doing mass data collection of individuals."
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But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
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