Posted on 10/30/2008 11:07:58 AM PDT by Publius804
Metro to Randomly Search Riders' Bags
By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 28, 2008; Page A01
Metro officials yesterday announced plans to immediately begin random searches of backpacks, purses and other bags in a move they say will protect riders and also guard their privacy and minimize delays.
The program is modeled after one begun three years ago in New York that has withstood legal challenges. However, experts said it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of such searches, beyond assuring the public that police are being vigilant. New York officials declined to say what they have found in their searches; none of the other transit systems conducting random searches have found any explosives, officials said.
Metro officials said the program was not in response to a specific threat but prompted by increased security concerns before next week's election and the inauguration as well as by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, London and elsewhere.
Although Metro police said the program will begin immediately, they would not say which of their 86 rail stations or more than 12,000 bus stops would be subject to inspection on any given day. On some days, there might be no inspections, or there might be several. Fifteen officers have been trained to perform searches, and more will be trained, officials said.
Checkpoints will be set up at Metro facilities, and passengers will go through inspections before entering a rail station or boarding a bus. The random searches will focus on detecting explosives, and it is likely that some riders will have their bags inspected before next Tuesday's election, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
THIS is why mass transportation is a bad idea.
Sure, why not? Chris Matthews advocated for checkpoints on the streets. “Why should I be safer on an airplane than I am walking down the street?”
Conservatives sometimes forget cops are part of the same big, intrusive government we are skeptical of. This should remind us of that.
As the second page of the article notes: if a bad guy sees a bag search in progress, they'll simply walk to a nearby station where there is none.
I think it has more to do with training police in the procedures and getting mass transit riders used to the idea. Eventually, there will be a specific threat that requires searching everyone entering the subway with a bag or package beyond a certain, for a day or two or longer, and it would be total chaos if the search stations were set up for the first time then.
These random searches are about the most ineffective and inefficient form of security there is.
They maximize the invasion of privacy of innocent people, and are unlikely to prevent or deter terrorist attacks.
If you search 1 on 20 people entering a subway or railroad station, you create a major inconvenience and invasion of privacy, but only reduce the chances of a successful terror attack by 5 percent.
You get the ugliness of a police state, without any of the security benefits.
It’s mostly women who get targeted in these, because as we all know, men don’t carry knives (or anything else) in their pockets.
Not at all. At least not if you want to condition the public that random, warrentless searches in direct violation of the Bill of Rights are perfectly ok.
L
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