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Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) recently received radiological detection equipment from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Homeland Security.



Valued at $7,000, the equipment will be used by WMATA police to determine if a package poses a radiological threat. Police officers and supervisors trained to deal with radiation will carry the pagers on routine patrol.



"We would use the equipment before our officers would touch, remove, disarm or disrupt a device to determine if it was radiological in nature," said Police Chief Polly Hanson in a prepared statement.