News from King County Department of Transportation
Release date:  March 1, 2006

Metro gathers transit agencies to improve emergency preparedness

Transit agencies from across the state gathered this week to participate in a two-day conference on preventing and responding to terrorism and other threats against transit agencies.

The conference was hosted by King County Metro Transit and conducted by the Federal Transit Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Transportation Security Administration. Members of the Division of Public Safety Leadership at Johns Hopkins University developed the coursework.

“We heard great things about this course from transit agencies in other areas of the country, and knew it would be valuable for agencies here in the Pacific Northwest,” said Maj. Carol Cummings, of the King County Sheriff’s Office, who heads up Metro Transit Police.  “We are always looking for ways to improve our emergency procedures to best protect transit passengers, workers and property.”

Agencies attending this week’s conference included: Sound Transit; Community Transit; Pierce Transit; Kitsap Transit; Intercity Transit from Olympia; Walla Walla Valley Transit; Whatcom Transit; Amtrak; Burlington Northern Railroad; Seattle Police Department; and Washington State Patrol.

Over the past two days, the agencies have worked on strategic and tactical thinking, studied the culture of terrorism, and learned the techniques of carrying out a risk management and vulnerability assessment for their own agency.

The conference ended Tuesday with a half-day simulation, where students put into practice the various elements they learned.

“One of the real values of this conference is that we all began to understand that through strategic thinking and planning we can make more efficient use of the security components we have throughout our systems to continually improve our ability to protect the public,” said Cummings.