Random Searches On Boston Trains

(CBS/AP)  Transit police will begin randomly stopping riders on Boston's subways and commuter trains next month to search their bags and packages, a procedure transportation officials say was largely prompted by the March 11 train bombings in Spain.

The new policy — the first in the United States — is set to be in place for July's Democratic National Convention in the city, transit Police Chief Joseph Carter told The Boston Globe newspaper for a story in Tuesday editions.

The program will include explosives-sniffing dogs and all 247 uniformed Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority police officers, he said.

"I have no trepidation about being first (in the nation with the policy)," Carter said. "I don't want to be the first to do an interview about having a serious incident that may have some terrorist indications to it. … We want to do this to encourage people to feel safe on the MBTA, to utilize public transportation."

The March bombings on commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killed 191 people and were blamed on Islamic militants with possible links to al Qaeda.

Carter said MBTA has not announced the new policy formally because officials still are working out the details on how to balance security and privacy concerns.

The program, yet to be fully developed, is being planned in coordination with federal officials and with several other transit agencies in the United States and abroad, Carter said.

Last month, MBTA police announced the entire force has been receiving counterterrorism training that includes spotting suspicious behavior. MBTA police already can request to see the identification of passengers they perceive to be acting suspiciously.

Last month, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration unveiled a pilot program to screen the bags of all passengers at a single commuter rail station in the state of Maryland.

MBTA Deputy Police Chief John Martino, who is overseeing the development and implementation of the search policy, said police, sometimes accompanied by explosives-sniffing dogs, will randomly pick out riders for inspection throughout the transit system daily. He said the number of inspections would increase dramatically during the Democratic convention July 26-29.

Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said that while she understands the need for security, the MBTA plan is deeply flawed and may violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure.

"The Fourth Amendment doesn't stop at your wrist when you carry a briefcase; it includes your bag," Rose said. "It either has to be truly random, or it has to have a root in a reasonable basis of suspicion."

"From Nazi Germany, to Stalinist Russia, to South Africa under apartheid, the phrase: 'Your papers, please' is alien to a free society," said John Reinstein, ACLU-Massachusetts legal director, in a statement.

Boston is expecting thousands of protesters at the convention. Four years ago, police departments in Los Angeles and Philadelphia were faulted for the way they treated demonstrators. The ACLU in Massachusetts has warned Boston police to respect protesters' rights.