Post 9/11, MARTA Uses "Target Hardening" Initiatives to Counter Terror Threat

By Jim Burress

Atlanta, GA – A study from the Mineta Transportation Institute finds that terrorists see urban mass transit as an attractive target. Systems with heavy rail -- like Atlanta's MARTA -- are especially vulnerable.

But the report also finds Canine teams can be an effective counterterrorism tool.

WABE's Jim Burress recently visited a few members of MARTA's K-9 team, and has our final story in the series: "9/11: Then and Now in Atlanta."

(Reporter) Nine year old Belgian Malinois "Nina" is a bit rambunctious on this morning at the turnstiles of MARTA's Lindbergh station. But handler and 12-year veteran MARTA Police Officer R.B Davis says she doesn't sense a threat, she's just excited.

(Davis) "You have aggressive response dogs and you have passive response dogs. We have passive response dogs."

(Reporter) Meaning, when Nina does find something out of the ordinary, she doesn't bark or scratch. She simply sits.

On her handler's command, the dog quickly goes to work, intently sniffing ticket machines, steps, corners. She doesn't know it, but Nina is part of an increase in MARTA's security, "post 9/11."

(Davis) "You're going to look for things that you normally didn't look for before. A bag that you would not pay attention to, now you're going to really pay attention to it."

(Reporter) Although MARTA has had canines since 1997, it stepped up the unit's size shortly after 9/11. The program now has 15 dogs, funded through a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. The animals are supplements to MARTA's larger security plan, says Emergency Preparedness Unit Commander Sgt. Aston Greene.

(Greene) "Where a door did not have a camera, now it does. Where a door was easily breached, you may have some additional security measures."

(Reporter) Other post 9/11 "Target Hardening Initiatives," as they're called, include closed-circuit surveillance, fencing around tracks, and trained bomb response teams.

Sgt. Greene, who is from New York City and was working there on 9/11, says MARTA is as vigilant now as it was immediately after the attacks. He declined to give specifics about any known threats to Atlanta's transit system, but says heightened security has made MARTA safer.

(Greene) "I think those deterrent measures have certainly prevented a lot of people from doing criminal acts, as well as terrorist acts on our system."

(Reporter) But Sgt. Green admits the system is vulnerable. Brian Jenkins agrees.

(Jenkins) "Terrorists see public transportation as a killing field."

(Reporter) Jenkins is Director of the National Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute in California.

He says authorities have thwarted six terrorist plots in the past ten years aimed at transit systems in D.C. and New York. And, Jenkins says, canine units play an important role.

(Jenkins) "The most effective explosive detection system we have has four legs and a wet nose."

(Reporter) Still, Jenkins says it's hard to employ enough dogs to fully defend a system as large as MARTA. And they're not cheap. A MARTA spokeswoman says it's difficult to give an exact number, but she says the federally-funded program costs well into the millions.

Meanwhile, MARTA says it's stepping up security this weekend. So there's a good chance riders may see Nina. Just don't pet her. She's working.