The deployment of the portable scanners, which project waves to do full-body screenings of passengers walking through a station without slowing them down, will happen in the coming months, said Alex Wiggins, who runs the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's law enforcement division.
The machines scan for metallic and non-metallic objects on a person's body, can detect suspicious items from 30 feet (9 meters) away and have the capability of scanning more than 2,000 passengers per hour.
"We're dealing with persistent threats to our transportation systems in our country," said Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske. "Our job is to ensure security in the transportation systems so that a terrorist incident does not happen on our watch."
Recently, Pekoske and other officials demonstrated the new machines, which are being purchased from Thruvision, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom.
"We're looking specifically for weapons that have the ability to cause a mass-casualty event," Wiggins said. "We're looking for explosive vests, we're looking for assault rifles. We're not necessarily looking for smaller weapons that don't have the ability to inflict mass casualties."
In addition to the Thruvision scanners, the agency is also planning to purchase other body scanners — which resemble white television cameras on tripods — that have the ability to move around and hone in on specific people and angles, Wiggins said.
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It's everywhere and it's growing. Has the demand for and use of electronic surveillance increased? The rapid changes in telecommunications technology has been accompanied by a growth in the potential intrusiveness of electronic surveillance and a steady increase in government surveillance activity. Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior of people, objects or processes within systems for conformity to expected or desired norms. Although the word surveillance literally means "watching over" the term is often used for all forms of observation or monitoring, not just visual observation. Such as the art of watching over the activities of persons or groups from a position of higher authority. Surveillance may be covert (without a persons knowledge) or overt (perhaps with frequent reminders such as "we are watching over you"). Because they're continually making new discoveries to increase the effectiveness of biometrics, rfid chips, etc., the government may soon be tracking us all.