City officials are reacting with calm in the wake of two separate bomb threats Sunday afternoon on Metro busses.
The two buses were evacuated and searched after an anonymous call was made to the Dane County 911. The police and Metro staff did not find any suspicious or dangerous materials on the buses, and the calls appear to have been part of a prank.
The Madison Police Department and Madison Metro are viewing the threats as isolated incidents, although police are still investigating the scares.
Sunday marked the first time in Madison history that a member of the general public had called a bomb threat into the police department and that buses have been evacuated.
Still, both Metro officials and Madison Police have plans in place to deal with specific instances such as Sunday's threats.
We have a protocol that we follow for emergency situations, and this was an emergency situation,\ said Mike Hanson, public information officer for the Madison Police Department.
The Metro system takes precautionary measures to prevent crises and prepares its employees to handle situations when they occur. However, separating the hoaxes and pranks from the real threats is a tall task for bus drivers and Metro officials.
""The drivers receive training about being aware of suspicious packages and we have a good rapport with the Police Department,"" said Julie Maryott-Walsh, marketing and customer services manager for Madison Metro.
Maryott-Walsh said she hoped the bomb scares would not lead to a climate of fear among Metro passengers.
""You do not want to blow something like that off,"" Maryott-Walsh said of the threats. ""But on the other hand, we don't all want to stay home and lock our doors and live inside either.""
This is not the first emergency situation that the city of Madison has had to face in recent months. Last November there were several pipe bomb scares and one explosion in downtown Madison. Hanson of the Police Department said there is no evidence linking last year's pipe bombs and Sunday's Metro threats.
How passengers will feel on the bus after the threats is unpredictable for each individual, according to UW-Madison psychiatry professor Burr Eichelman, who specializes in public reactions to terrorist threats.
""Some people will say that this is pranksterism and will lower their guard against any sort of real threat,"" Eichelman said. ""There are some people that will say that it adds to the general fearfulness of our society right now and will react accordingly. Maybe they will stay off the buses.""\
