More?
I'm not sure how I feel about this:
Metro transit police announced this afternoon that they will, within a few days, begin conducting random inspections of carry-on items on the Metro system as a security measure.
Metro said the inspections will take "only minutes" and police will check bags or packages for "hazardous materials." Anyone who "refuses to submit their carry-on items for inspection will be prohibited from bringing those items into the station."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock/2010/12/metro_to_begin_random_bag_insp.html
Is it as invasive as the recent airline security measures? Not quite. But it still seems indicative of a certain trend...still, I guess it's reassuring that the sheer number of people who ride metro every day will probably make it impossible for them to pat people down in the future. They simply lack the manpower to pay that much attention.
Also, the part of the article that struck me as the most sad (and most hilarious): if they were really thinking of implementing this 2-3 years ago, but opted not to, due to rider backlash, why are they deciding it's worth the "rider backlash" now? What's changed in 2 years?
Another point: every day this week, there has been a major delay with getting to work, due to technical malfunctions on their trains. Over the last year, it has become a more and more common occurrence that some technical malfunction/fire/whatever causes thousands of people to be an hour late to work. In 2003-2004, metro was actually (mostly) reliable. So, instead of putting money towards possibly repairing their metro cars, or figuring out how to make people's commutes more efficient, they throw money towards needless security measures.
(I'm guessing clintjcl is going to agree with me here)
Ah well.
Metro transit police announced this afternoon that they will, within a few days, begin conducting random inspections of carry-on items on the Metro system as a security measure.
Metro said the inspections will take "only minutes" and police will check bags or packages for "hazardous materials." Anyone who "refuses to submit their carry-on items for inspection will be prohibited from bringing those items into the station."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock/2010/12/metro_to_begin_random_bag_insp.html
Is it as invasive as the recent airline security measures? Not quite. But it still seems indicative of a certain trend...still, I guess it's reassuring that the sheer number of people who ride metro every day will probably make it impossible for them to pat people down in the future. They simply lack the manpower to pay that much attention.
Also, the part of the article that struck me as the most sad (and most hilarious): if they were really thinking of implementing this 2-3 years ago, but opted not to, due to rider backlash, why are they deciding it's worth the "rider backlash" now? What's changed in 2 years?
Another point: every day this week, there has been a major delay with getting to work, due to technical malfunctions on their trains. Over the last year, it has become a more and more common occurrence that some technical malfunction/fire/whatever causes thousands of people to be an hour late to work. In 2003-2004, metro was actually (mostly) reliable. So, instead of putting money towards possibly repairing their metro cars, or figuring out how to make people's commutes more efficient, they throw money towards needless security measures.
(I'm guessing clintjcl is going to agree with me here)
Ah well.