Does this security checkpoint make sense?

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

With my new job I decided to save money and take the EL train to work every day (that alone has lowered my stress level not driving into city traffic, plus I can sleep in later!).

If anyone knows Chicago, I take the Orange Line out of Midway Airport and it is a quick 25 min ride to work. Until this week. At the Halsted stop - the last stop before the trains enters downtown - they stop the train for close to 7-15 minutes. Why? Just so two Chicago Uniformed Cops can walk up and down the entire train and stare at us. They don't enter the trains or do anything else. They just walk and stare.

Please tell me how taking these four officers off the street to stare at us is making that train any safer?

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[CrazyIvan 0]

You know what?, I wish here in NYC they did something like that.

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Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[Vallerina 2]

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Please tell me how taking these four officers off the street to stare at us is making that train any safer?

Spiderman was probably fighting on it again.

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Why? What does this do for safety? I've been riding this train for almost 10 years and have never once had a problem. Especially in the morning when the car is packed, air conditioned and most people are reading the paper, sleeping or have their headsets on.

Plus each train has 6 security cameras on it already.

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[eeneR 3]

Maybe someone on that train reported seeing someone that was a wanted criminal? So they stopped the train to check it out, or maybe something happend on one of the other cars to someone...and the police had to be called in....

She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway."
eeneR
TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Nope, I asked. This is going to be the routine now. They are going to be doing it on all CTA train lines.

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[tigra 0]

I don't know, but this morning my Metra train stopped for about 5 minutes just before Halsted Street- the last stop before Union Station. I didn't notice anyone boarding the train, though.

Here's another weird security story. I enrolled in a class at the Cervantes Insitute which is located in the Hancock Building. They stop everyone at the lobby and issue a visitors pass, then someone else has to push the button on the elevator so you can get to your floor. BUT, no one checks ID or looks in your bag or anything, so really what's the point?

[sunshine 2]

You know what? If that short 7-15 minutes a day helps to prevent a bombing or other tragedy, thats not so bad. I'd much rather have you alive and whining, then dead and saving a few minutes of your day.

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meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

[mr2mk1g 10]

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I've been riding this train for almost 10 years and have never once had a problem.

Betcha no one in Madrid ever saw anything suspicious before either.

[CrazyIvan 0]

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Why? What does this do for safety? I've been riding this train for almost 10 years and have never once had a problem. Espicially in the morning when the car is packed, air conditioned and most people are reading the paper, sleeping or have their headsets on.

Plus each train has 6 security cameras on it already.

Well my friend these are different times, and you just mentioned some "keywords" CAR PACKED, SLEEPING (not paying attention), I'm not a paranoid guy, but I always keep an eye open.

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Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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Here's another weird security story. I enrolled in a class at the Cervantes Insitute which is located in the Hancock Building. They stop everyone at the lobby and issue a visitors pass, then someone else has to push the button on the elevator so you can get to your floor. BUT, no one checks ID or looks in your bag or anything, so really what's the point?

I noticed they started doing that after 9/11. It didn't make sense to me either.

Here is something to think about - I work across the street from the Sears Tower and my office (yea, I have an office now!!) looks out at the Tower. I had to go thru a metal detector to get into the Sears Tower yesterday and noticed it is set very low since my belt and keys didn't set it off (it does at the airport). Plus they have all these cameras around the building.

Now I can just walk into my building, there is no security check, there are two small cameras by the elevator, and that is it. And you would be above and out of view of any security of the Sears Tower. That just worries me.

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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I've been riding this train for almost 10 years and have never once had a problem.

Betcha no one in Madrid ever saw anything suspicious before either.

Good Point.

But, they don't enter the trains. You could hide something under your seat and they could never see it.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[PhillyKev 0]

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Betcha no one in Madrid ever saw anything suspicious before either.

Up to and including the time the train blew up. I doubt a couple cops walking through would have made a difference.

[Vallerina 2]

It's not as bad as the police boats that were in the river a couple weeks ago. I could understand the Fire Dept. boats, but what could the police do from the river?

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[tigra 0]

I know in the post 9/11 world that the high profile buildings in the city will have increased security, and that's fine. But this is pointless since they really don't DO anything! What these buildings need to be doing (including the one I work in) is practice evacuation drills!

Has your train been stopping every morning? I don't take the train every day, but I did notice that it stopped today. Maybe there is some new threat they are checking out. I've definitely noticed increased police and security presence from time to time on public transportation and Metra since 9/11.

[FreeflyChile 0]

i have seen cops with dogs on the L several times in the last few weeks, mostly on the blue line.

[mr2mk1g 10]

You're quite probably right, but do you think it might be worth a shot? Probably more importantly - do you think some voters might think it's worth a shot? It’s a kind of balance of harm thing – on one hand you inconvenience a few people – on the other hand you might save hundreds of lives.

Also bear in mind the repercussions on the authorities if a bomb went off and they couldn’t point to any form of security checks whatsoever. As it is, were the worst to happen they can at least point to security checks that many considered intrusive and over the top.

[LouDiamond 1]

Lets not forget that an overt prescence can and has stopped bad things from happening. However, there are also other methods that may be transparent to you in some places and or facilities for good reason. Deterance be it visual,a cop,security or cameras serves only one aspect in the grand scheme of things. While it may be a pain is the ass to you having to wait a few extra minutes, it just might be the extra time spent that stops a planning process from continuing or an actual act from happening.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[catfishhunter 2]

Point everyone seems to have missed is that by stopping the train for an indeterminate amount of time will throw off any schedule of someone wishing to cause harm. Terrorist have a strict time table. If you can disrubt their abillity to stay on schedule then you "might" remove a possible means of terror for them.

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

They have been staring at the trains since Sunday.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[JohnRich 4]

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Lets not forget that an overt prescence can and has stopped bad things from happening.

Yes, just their presence on a regular basis like that, is enough to intimidate evil-doers into going somewhere else, therefore making the train relatively safe.

It doesn't mean that evil-doers won't succeed, but it makes it less likely that they'll choose that train for it.

The story reminded me of my time in South Korea, when buses going over the rivers into downtown Seoul, had to be stopped and inspected by South Korean soldiers with M-16's, while patrol boats dragged the river for mines.

And it occurs to me that the situation in South Korea, with a hostile neighbor to the north run by a crackpot dictator, isn't much different from what the U.S. now faces with terrorism...

[PhreeZone 20]

The bombing over Lockerbie was triggered by altitude, not time. They believe the same was done with the latest bombings in Russia. Time tables are not near as important as end goals with terrorists.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[FlyingJ 0]

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You know what?, I wish here in NYC they did something like that.

Not sure what line you commute on, but in the 3 or 4 months before I left (I moved in July) my A/C train stopped at 125th every morning. Only for about 2 minutes, but a cop would walk up and take a look into each car. That happened for a few months at least.

j.

Killing threads since 2004.

[Clownburner 0]

This is what is referred to in the security industry as "Security theatre."

It doesn't make anyone actually safer, but it makes the ignorant masses FEEL safer, so that's what they do. The security experts know there isn't much they can do to prevent someone from bringing a bomb on board a train, but they have to be seen to do something, so they do something useless.

The problem with this approach is that they're instilling people with a false sense of security. I'd rather have people thinking "That guy with the backpack wrapped in duct tape looks suspicious, I should tell the police" than thinking "Oh, the police have checked it out, I'm sure it's nothing."

7CP#1 | BTR#2 | Payaso en fuego Rodriguez
"I want hot chicks in my boobies!"- McBeth

[billvon 3,110]

>Please tell me how taking these four officers off the street to stare at us
>is making that train any safer?

They can visually inspect the train before it enters downtown. Visual inspections can spot wanted terrorists, large packages that might be bombs, unusual groups of people etc. In other words, they do the same job that they would do if they were walking around on the street. Trains are often targets of terrorist attacks.