Public Transportation Security. Volume 6: Applicability of Portable Explosive Detection Devices in Transit Environments

摘要

With the current high level of security awareness in the transit environment and the considerable proportion of bomb threats that are hoaxes, law-enforcement and transit-security officials need decision-making tools to investigate threats before taking actions such as an evacuation order. The use of technology is one option for safely investigating bomb threats. In addition to the traditional practice of using trained dogs, state-of-the-art tools are available for detecting the presence of explosives, including portable explosive tracevapor detection devices. Some transit agencies deploy bomb-sniffing canine units, but the dogs can only work a short period of time before they are fatigued. Many of the technology-based detection devices are not subject to fatigue, but they have not been used on a routine basis in transit systems. This report addresses the need to determine the usefulness of existing portable explosive detection devices (EDDs) in a transit environment. The audience of this report includes transit agency general managers, middle- to upper-level managers, transit-security and/or law-enforcement officials, and local or state law-enforcement representatives.