New Bomb Detectors Coming to Penn Station, Aren't Quite State of the Art
For the rest of this week, the Transportation Security Administration and Amtrak are piloting two new bomb detection devices in Penn Station. But they are large, conspicuous, and would be easy for suicide bombers to outwit.
At a demonstration in Penn on Tuesday morning, TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein admitted with so many entrances at Penn Station it would be difficult to prevent someone determined to carry out a bomb plot.
"If they want to turn around and go out they can," Farbstein said.
The technology in the machines dates back to 2004, according to a source close to the TSA. The devices were used at the Super Bowl in New Jersey in 2014, and again when Pope Francis visited New York City in 2015.
One device has a stationary camera that scans people who pass in front of it. The other relies on an officer to use a joystick which moves the camera, scanning one person at a time.
The devices also rely on cameras that feed video to a laptop that is monitored by an Amtrak police officer. They show green when a person is not wearing an explosive device, and turn red when explosives are detected.
This pilot program comes after Sen. Chuck Schumer pressured the TSA, following a failed bomb attempt in December in the subway passageway at 42nd Street.
“At long last and at not a moment too soon, the TSA has agreed to bring this new, potentially life-saving technology to New York City and Penn Station for testing, and so we thank the TSA for heeding the call,” Schumer wrote in a statement.
A spokesman for the the Department of Homeland Security said he hadn't heard about this pilot until WNYC contacted him. The agency is already testing more advanced millimeter wave detection technology at train stations in Boston and Washington D.C.
When asked about this newer technology, Farbstein with the TSA said, "I'm not familiar with the other equipment, I'm just familiar with this equipment."
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