The illusion of security

Hundreds of metal detectors in the St. Petersburg metro, designed to protect citizens from terrorists, do not fulfill their task a year after installation.

This text was published in November 2016.

“Young man, please come through,” - in the upper lobby of the Chernyshevskaya station, a metro police officer addresses a Novaya correspondent who has just passed through the frames at the entrance. We go into the security screening area to see how another arch of the metal detector reacts to the passenger. I’m wondering: “Why did you install frames at the entrance if you have to constantly inspect it additionally?” – because I always get stopped because of my backpack. “The entrances don’t work,” the policeman explains, smiling. And it is unknown when they will start working.

Lengthy test

325 arched metal detectors were installed in the St. Petersburg metro in the fall and winter of last year at 67 stations. For this order, the Moscow CJSC Modern Science-Intensive Technologies (CJSC SNT) received 59.5 million rubles from the local Transport Committee. Each arch cost 183,250 rubles, although back in October 2013 the committee bought a frame from SNT for 63 thousand rubles. By the way, a threefold increase in price with a declared inflation of 5–7 percent is difficult to explain even by the fall of the ruble and the rise in price of imported parts.

Previously, metal detectors were located only in a special area for screening individual citizens. Now they began to inspect all passengers without exception, with the exception of those wearing pacemakers. This is not local know-how, but an order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 2010 on the approval of a transport safety program, the State Unitary Enterprise “Petersburg Metro” told Novaya, that is, the money was allocated from the federal budget.

The frames at the entrance and in the inspection room are different: in the first case, these are products of the Rubicon company, in the second - SmartScan, the supply of which was carried out by ZAO SNT under the contract. The metro installed the “Rubicon” back in 2011, after the terrorist attack in the Moscow metro, and in 2015 they decided not to change them due to lack of money, SNT told Novaya.

The Metropolitan admitted that the equipment has not been working properly for almost a year. “From December 26, 2015 to December 1, 2016 <...> groups of stationary frame metal detectors <...> are in trial operation,” press secretary of the State Unitary Enterprise “Metropolitan” Yulia Shchavel responded to the editor’s request. According to her, during the year, representatives of the St. Petersburg subway offer the manufacturer to make changes to the work of the security framework.

Why such a long probationary period was needed is unclear. The manufacturer himself compared his product to a refrigerator. “We have an instruction manual. Fifteen seconds - and the metal detector is ready for work,” says the SNT specialist, who flatly refused to introduce himself over the phone. (None of Novaya’s interlocutors wanted to give their name when they learned that we were talking about metal detectors for the metro.) Let us note that the tender documentation does not provide for a period of trial operation.

In a conversation with a Novaya correspondent, other market participants, including SNT competitors, doubted that the equipment supplied in 2015 by Modern High Technologies fulfills the assigned tasks.

“The metal detectors are configured so that the sound is turned off and there is no reaction, so, in fact, they do not work,” said an interlocutor from the Aurix company, which produces and supplies anti-terrorism equipment.

A specialist from the ST Group company also suggested that the equipment in the lobbies was in vain: “It looks like they were installed only to comply with the order on anti-terrorism measures.” According to him, you can set up the frames in a day, or even in a couple of hours; on the equipment of some companies you can set a certain mode, and the equipment itself will determine the required sensitivity.

SNT supplied its equipment not only to St. Petersburg, but also to Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. Last year, the Moscow Metro Security Service even issued a letter of gratitude to the company for the “reliable noise immunity and good selectivity” of the frames. But in Nizhny Novgorod, SNT participated in litigation initiated by local authorities: they were not satisfied that the framework often worked falsely. This makes the words of metro representatives about the test mode sound all the more strange. “It was possible to test at one station,” they say at Aurix. “And to install metal detectors throughout the entire Moscow and St. Petersburg metro and say that a year of trial operation is required is ridiculous.”

The SNT specialist, who participated in equipping the St. Petersburg metro with proprietary equipment, could not explain why today the Rubicon from the inspection area has to duplicate their SmartScan. The tasks of equipment of different brands completely coincide - both of them must react to a particular portion of metal from a passenger. But today none of the police are looking closely at SmartScan (remember, 183,250 rubles apiece).

You can't count them all

The question also arises about the effectiveness of using frame metal detectors on the metro. During the first half of this year, 360.3 million people used the St. Petersburg subway. Passenger traffic at Pulkovo Airport, which also uses arches, was 13.5 million people for the entire 2015. At the airport, passengers can pass through the anti-terrorist borders in accordance with the instructions almost without problems, but in the metro this will cause kilometer-long queues, experts say. “You must pass the frame at a certain point in time: when it signals that it is ready,” explained the ST Group. – When a person passes, there is a certain delay until the light comes on. If this happens, they should be inspected with a hand-held metal detector. Plus, on every frame there should be a policeman, or even two.” In addition, the police or the manufacturer must set the device to a certain mass of metal so that it does not signal every little thing such as keys.

“Modern high technology” in both capitals was the only participant in city competitions for the supply of equipment. Although all arch metal detectors generally work the same, there may be some requirements in the contract that all other companies will not. For example, they may require law enforcement certification that is not required by law. “It is almost impossible to obtain an FSB certificate,” they say at Aurix. Neither ST Group nor Aurix participated in the competition to equip the metro with arch detectors, since their equipment did not meet the necessary requirements. In general, the market for arched metal detectors is quite small, so usually no one except SNT participates in auctions.

SNT itself, of course, is absolutely confident in the effectiveness of its equipment. “I’ve been working in security for 50 years,” says an anonymous company specialist. “The product that I produce serves for the safety of my family and friends and for the citizens of our magnificent Russia.”