Senator Chuck Schumer said on Sunday that the Transport Security Administration should speed up the testing and deployment of screening devices which detect suicide vests like the one recently used in the attempted attack on the New York City subway.
“The fact that we have this new, potentially life-saving technology at our fingertips — an ability to detect concealed explosives worn by cowards looking to do us harm — demands the federal government put both the testing and the perfecting of this technology on the fast-track,” Schumer said, adding that these devices are very much needed in America’s busiest cities.
These devices, known as stand-off explosive detection units, do a full-body screening of passengers without slowing them down. The detection of an explosive device triggers an alarm, Fox News says.
“Along with industry partners, we are committed to identifying, testing and deploying technology that addresses threats to transportation across the spectrum,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said.
The TSA is working with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, testing the devices in one of the city’s busiest stations. The technology, which has been under development since 2004, was also tested in Union Station in Washington before Thanksgiving and at a New Jersey Transit station during the 2014 Super Bowl, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.
The bomb-detecting machines scan for metallic and non-metallic objects on people’s bodies by projecting scanning waves from a distance but do not detect explosive vapors.
“There’s a global pattern that seems to be emerging involving suicide bombers and explosives in soft spaces. We want to be prudent and stay ahead of the threat,” Alex Wiggins, who runs the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s law enforcement division, said.
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