In spite of ongoing problems with its new $60 million police radio system and an expected cut in its portion of regional homeland security funds, Metro Police Chief Polly Hanson said the 106-mile system is safer than it was just a year ago.
Speaking on the one-year anniversary of the London transit system bombings, Hanson said new technology and training for officers continue to enhance security on the nation’s second largest transit system.
“I don’t know that we are the safest subway system,” Hanson said in an online chat Friday. “But we sure do what we can to makeit as safe as possible for our customers and employees.”
Hanson said the new radio system, which is still being tweaked two years after being installed, has yet to come fully online and forces the 300 officers who patrol the subway system to carry two radios — the old and the new.
Hanson said just seven of the 47 underground stations, among 86 system-wide, have had sound quality problems.
“This summer we are going to take the stations with the worst reception and replace that antenna,” Hanson said. “That work will improve reception at several stations.
“The radios do work at those other seven stations, but not as well as we would like,” he said
The new radios, which have hundreds of channels compared the one channel on the old system, have been installed in an estimated 1,400 buses and nearly 60 police vehicles and work very well, officials said.
Hanson said security on the bus system, which often gets overlooked, is also being boosted with plans to add 20 officers. The agency has also installed security cameras on 585 buses — roughly 40 percent of the fleet — and all of the hundreds of new buses being put on the street in the next year will come equipped with video cameras.
The often-criticized public address system is being upgraded at 37 stations, and last month Metro announced a major lighting initiative which will also help with security, officials said.
