Metro transit police are bracing for a potential threat to the Washington area’s subway system revealed in a memo from the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are monitoring the situation and talking to our contacts in the intelligence community,” said Metro spokesman Reggie Woodruff.
DHS notified Metro transit police that a person in Turkey was trying to obtain a U.S. visa with the intention of harming the Metro system. Intelligence officials have not identified a suspect or established a corroborating source.
Guardian Angels to patrol Metro The Guardian Angels will start patrolling Metro’s Green Line three nights a week after a large fight broke out at Gallery Place over the weekend, injuring four people.
They will patrol the line between the Congress Heights and Fort Totten stations on Friday and Saturday nights and one night during the week, said D.C. chapter leader John Ayala.
Until more details surface, Metro police are classifying the threat as “low-level.” “We have not brought in any additional forces,” Woodruff said. “We wouldn’t want to tax our force based on every low-level threat that is received.”
The DHS memo marks the first time this year Metro has received an intelligence report regarding a possible threat, he said.
“Last year there were about two or three reports that we received and those reports were more detailed — and we took what we perceived as a more active posture in response because we had more specifics about possible targets,” he said.
He said transit officials are prepared to act fast if new information develops and the threat level increases.
Metro officials urged riders to notify the transit agency if they spot suspicious packages or activity by calling 202-962-2121.
“Some information we’ve gotten from riders has been significant enough that we did change our posture afterwards,” he said. “But the information we received [from DHS] is through third-party reporting. It’s a report from someone, the origins of which haven’t been substantiated, who said allegedly another person was [threatening to harm the D.C. subway].”
In the meantime, riders can rest easy knowing additional police will be manning certain stations in the next several weeks for training — which transit officials insist is unrelated to the memo.
Montgomery County’s transportation security unit began conducting drills at unidentified Red Line and MARC train stations Tuesday to test officers’ response to the detection and prevention of terrorist activity, county police said. During the drills, riders can expect to see uniformed officers, K-9 teams and SWAT officers.
