About 10 percent of the calls Metro Transit Police have received about suspicious people, packages or bomb threats this year resulted in an arrest or police report, according to the transit agency. Metro’s police department responded to 339 such calls in the first half of 2011, or about two cases a day, according to the transit agency.
About 30 of them led to a police arrest or a report, but some of the cases that did lead to a police report did not actually entail viable threats.
| Recent threats to Metro |
| • In October, a 34-year-old Ashburn man was arrested after spending six months observing several Northern Virginia Metro stations so he could help people whom he believed were al Qaeda members — but who were actually federal agents — plan a terrorist attack. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. |
| • In December, a 25-year-old Arlington man was charged with using Facebook to threaten to set off explosives in the Metro system and in Georgetown. He was sentenced to two years of supervised release. |
On June 13, a woman on a Red Line train heading to the Rockville station allegedly threatened to bomb the train, causing riders to flee onto the train tracks, which forced the agency to shut down power to the tracks to multiple stations during the morning rush.
But no bomb was found and the 51-year-old McLean woman was not criminally charged as Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said she was “mentally unfit.” She has been involuntarily committed for mental health issues. Stessel said a report was made in that case, despite no bomb or arrest.
The chaos that ensued in that case highlighted the trouble even empty — or unintended — threats can cause. Similarly, in December, a blinking Christmas ornament dumped in a Pentagon station trash can waylaid thousands of morning commuters as officials tried to ensure it wasn’t a bomb.
Often a rider comes back to claim an unattended briefcase before a police officer takes any action, Stessel said. “Most officers clear the call with a ‘no report’ or ‘nothing found’ disposition,” he said.
Still Stessel said he doesn’t want all the false alarms to deter riders from coming forward.
“We absolutely want people who see something to say something,” Stessel wrote in an email. “Always err on the side of caution.”
The transit system remains difficult to protect given that it doesn’t have security screening like airports.
“Obviously mass transit is one of the most attractive targets,” said D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier testified at a congressional oversight hearing looking into Metro’s security.
Worldwide, subway and commuter train systems have been attacked with deadly results. Bombings tore up the subways in Madrid in 2004, in London in 2005, in Mumbai in 2006 and Moscow in 2010.
