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In Congressional testimony in Washington D.C. yesterday, deputy NYPD commish Richard Falkenrath told lawmakers that he wakes up every morning braced for another terrorist attack. The method of attack? Simultaneous detonation of satchel bombs. Falkenrath, who was testifying in front of the Homeland Security Committee on a mass transit bill, also told House members that there have been 22 bomb threats and 31 leads related to subway attack plots this year. The proposed bill would set aside $4 billion for subway and rail security, including $100 million for tunnels in Penn Station.
While Falkenrath approved of the $100 million for Penn Station, there were plenty of things he didn't like in the bill:
"Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the field of homeland security has been gripped by a mania for plans, strategies and other mandatory reports. They are of almost no value to operating agencies in the field; and they seem to be ignored by virtually everyone except the government contractors paid to verify that the reporting requirements have been met."Representative Peter King said that the statements had "a tremendous impact" given Falkenrath's former work with the federal government.
In other transit news, running the Staten Island Ferry has gotten a lot more expensive recently. The city's Independent Budget Office released a report showing that ferry costs this year are $83.8 million, up from $69.4 million last year. Just 5 years ago, the operating cost was just $40.2 million. Most of the reasons for the huge increase are for safety and security. In addition to post-9/11 security upgrades, there are also increased costs for new rules established after the ferry crash in 2003.
Photo of the police during the no pants ride by icopythat on flickr
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Those iron maidens are a deathtrap--people get caught in them often enough in rush hour. I can't imagine what a nightmare they'd be in an emergency.
Anonymous: It'd be the equivalent to a human cheese grater.
It's true. The biggest, and I mean biggest, looming New York City emergency crisis is the lack of proper subway emergency planning. The subway cars are moving coffins. If anything happens, you cannot escape the newwer subway cars. The windows don't open and the doors between the cars don't open. It's a death trap. This will become horrifically obvious when we come upon some unexpected subway emergency. "Then" suddenly the city will rush to implement new measures. But that will be too late. Why not make us safer NOW??
Agree with marg 100% - I kind of secretly hope that a subway plot will go down soon [with me not on it of course!] so that the MTA will fix that whole damn policy of locking the train car doors - in an emergency there is just no way out...
'If you see something, say something'
- that announcement is repeated constantly - but underground cell phone reception is impossible to get if one did want to report a suspicion.
...and the pay phones don't work.
i wonder if statements like these from officials is a good way to jockey for more funding...
I agree that the iron maidens are kind of scary but most of them have emergency doors by them now. Also the doors between cars unlock automatically during power failure/collision or at the control of the conductor/operator. No other subway system in the world allows passengers to pass between cars that I can think of... at least not London, Paris, Boston, Berlin, etc.. unless they have articulated cars... really it's insanely dangerous... the chances of dying from that are probably way higher than not being able to escape during a terror attack.
I believe there is a greater threat to america from black teenagers smoking pot than from terror.