WASHINGTON - Metro Police started randomly inspecting bags at the Braddock Road and College Park Metro stations Tuesday. The searches, which are designed to be non-intrusive, came in the wake of recent terror plots and the same morning that an explosive device was found under a subway car seat in Rome.
The searches started at 7:30 a.m. and lasted about an hour at the Braddock Metro station.
During the searches, police randomly selected bags or packages and checked for hazardous materials using special technology. Screeners swabbed some bags and inspected them in a process that look less than a minute each.
Some common items, such as household chemicals, can prompt a positive test. Residue from a firing range also can trigger a positive test.
One Metro transit officer tells WTOP's Adam Tuss that "homemade bombs often come from household chemicals."
At Braddock Metro, one man was stopped for about 8 minutes because there was some sort of chemical substance on his bag. Police X-rayed the bag, finding nothing. They also took his his identification and questioned him.
Another woman, who did not object to the bag screening, was stopped for 45 seconds. She missed her train as her bag of Christmas presents was searched.
Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Ron Pavlik said they inspected 25 bags in an hour at College Park and that the program would continue at multiple locations throughout the day.
"The whole idea is randomness," he said.
Dennis White, 59, who lives in College Park, said he was happy to find the inspections on his commute to work in Washington.
"In order to have a safe system, you have to make sure people don't get on it with explosives," said White, after having his bag inspected. "I really think we need to be realistic in these times."
Carol Cole, 58, of Greenbelt, said she wasn't bothered by the inspection. "I don't mind so much because you never know what is sitting next to you - the shoebomber or something?"
Groups upset about the bag searches started an online petition against it. They question the constitutionality of the searches.
Similar searches on New York's subways were challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2005, but an appeals court determined they were constitutional.
WTOP's Adam Tuss contributed to this story. Follow Adam on Twitter
(Copyright 2010 by WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
