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LA subway to use body scanners to screen passengers

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has said that body scanners will be used on the Los Angeles subway to screen passengers for explosives and weapons.

Having ordered equipment from UK manufacturer Thruvision, the transport authority will be the first mass transport system in the US to adopt the technology, being able to detect suspicious items from up to 32ft (10m) away, and can scan more than 2,000 passengers an hour.

Reports from Los Angeles claim that the screening would be ‘voluntary’, but those refusing a scan will not be allowed to travel.



 

Concealing an item under clothes blocks body heat from being emitted, and therefore the cameras can detect items that have been hidden by detecting up a person's body heat through their clothing.

Alex Wiggins, from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the authority was looking for weapons that could cause a ‘mass-casualty event’ such as explosives and assault rifles, rather than smaller weapons.

Thruvision’s equipment is not currently used on UK public transport, but it has been trialled at the Farnborough Airshow.

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