How long before they shoot someone by mistake?
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Machine-Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway
M4 Carbine Rifles, MP5 Submachine Guns & Bomb Sniffing Dogs Part Of New "Torch Team" Anti-Terror Efforts
Reporting
Magee Hickey NEW YORK (CBS) "• More protection against terrorists is coming to a subway station near you. Starting Thursday, special bomb teams - "Torch Teams" - will be toting submachine guns and bringing bomb-sniffing dogs onto the platforms and into the trains. CBS 2 was out first thing Thursday morning on the lookout for these significant security measure improvements.
It's a first for mass transit in the United States. NYPD officers, armed with rifles, submachine guns, body armor and bomb sniffing dogs will begin patrolling the city's subway system thanks to a 50 percent increase in a homeland security grant.
The city's massive subway system has long been considered a potential terror target; six officers and a dog will constitute a team, patrolling all platforms and trains in 12-hour shifts. The "Torch Teams" will be toting MP5 submachine guns and M4 Carbine rifles that are used by Navy seals and FBI hostage-rescue teams. The teams are being paid for by $151 million from the Feds.
Similarly equipped NYPD units, known as "Hercules Teams," have patrolled Wall Street, the Empire State building and other aboveground city landmarks for years as a response to the World Trade Center attacks.
A police official likened the "Torch Teams" to "Hercules Teams" with metro cards. In this age of heightened security, commuters and keen canines will share the underground world of mass transit