T Security Theatre in Davis Square
By adamg - 4/9/09 - 7:41 am
Spatch's commute from Davis Square was just a bit cheerier this morning thanks to the cops and dogs:
Critics love MBTA Security Theater! "Who needs probable cause whenthey've got on such snappy uniforms?"
Comments
Yeesh!
Back in my Davis Square days (1987-2002), I'd have walked out and on to Porter.
And cursed the whole way.
And it's not even Security Kabuki -- it's Security Noh!
Security Unfolded
I would have waved as I whizzed by you on my folding bike ... except I took the commuter rail this morning.
Did they have that little yellow lab that seems to have a nose for terrorist tuna sandwiches and insurgent dog treats?
Steak Bomb sandwich-sniffin' dogs
When I went by, the dog had Seen Someone else's dog go through the turnstiles and was busy Saying Something about it.
For all the Official Looking bag checking they do when they've set up in the station, I've noticed that they let people go by when a train's arriving and everybody's rushing to catch it.
That's rather considerate of them, all things considered, but kinda sheds a brighter light on what they're really aiming to accomplish here.
Pet Patronage?
I have to wonder if that little pup is still in training or if he is somebody's pet on a detail salary and not a carefully selected animal for the work he's doing.
They seem to be having a lot of trouble training this particular dog to simply behave and sit (wouldn't do it in Downtown Crossing until the officer nearly sat on him/her), let alone target the right napsacks for the right reasons. At Wellington, where I was waiting inside for a ride, I watched for a while. He or she would BARK! at a person and they would search the bag and ... "another tuna sandwich".
Well, you know what they say
Well, you know what they say in show biz: Never work with children or animals.
I love bomb / drug sniffing dogs
Just after Christmas 2003, while we were at Condition Orange (remember those days?) I sat outside a gate at Bradley Airport with my carry on bag tucked between my feet.
A state police officer strolled on by with his bomb sniffing dog. They reached the end of the long row of chairs, and looped back once more just to be sure they hadn't missed anything.
The dog approached me once more, stopped dead in its tracks and dove head first into my bag. Started making all kinds of excited noises and began licking it. The concern in the faces of the other passengers was palpable. My blood pressure skyrocketed and I imagined being shunted away to Room 101.
The officer on the other hand seemed annoyed with the dog and jerked him away from my stuff and told him to keep moving.
It was then I decided to allay the fears of my fellow passengers by slowly pulling out the gigantic bag of M&M cookies my Mom had tossed me on the way to the airport that morning. I'm still thankful the Connecticut State Police have trained their K9 units to tell the difference between Hungry Dog and OHCRAPTERRORISTPASSENGER.
if the dog had stopped and sat down...
...you wouldn't be talking to us right now, you would be in Gitmo.
Drug sniffing dogs indicate by stopping+sitting, not rooting around. But yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if in the rush to get dogs trained, corners were cut.
I had a dog sit down in front of my bag once...
In customs in an airport. The agent came up to me and said "uh oh...you know what that means?"
And of course I had no idea but was kind of worried replied "no."
To which the agent goes "It means you have to pet him"
Kind of funny. I think it was one of the dogs that looks for meat and fruits and stuff though.
Crying wolf
I don't know about this particular event, but I suspect that the un-Constitutional searches and some of the ill-conceived 'security' measures... are inflicting heavy casualties on public respect for MBTA Transit Police.
I'm pretty pro-police myself, but my own impression of Transit Police overall has been seriously damaged in the last few years.
Besides making Boston less of a nice place to live, I wonder whether the damaged credibility of Transit Police is a safety&security liability. There will be times that Transit Police need to be trusted to be effective, and right now, there isn't a lot of trust.
Cop Credibility
True, Neil. It will work to their detriment.
Police in general were respected more prior to the 60's and 70's. When they had to start busting large numbers of otherwise-peaceful people for such things as drug possession and unclear freedom-of-speech issues, fairly much an entire generation grew up disrespecting and fearing the police. This sort of thing will do the same.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Respect for cops began to erode during the 1960's.
If the constant referral to cops as "pigs" by many kids during the mid to late 1960's is any indication, respect for cops had already pretty much eroded by the mid to late 1960's.
T Inspections
I appreciate and agree with most of the comments written here about the inspections conducted by the Transit Police, except one, which I have to disagree with in part.
The MTA's (NYC) inspection regime was specifically held to be constitutional by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. While that opinion is not binding here (in the 1st Circuit), I would be very, very suprised if our circuit did not find the 2nd Circuit's analysis to be so persuasive as to be tantamount to binding precedent. Similarly, the U.S. District Court for Massachsuetts has held that similar inspections as part of the security measures for the DNC in 2004 were constitutional. Therefore, regardless of how we feel about it, I think it is safe to say that the current state of the law is that the inspecitons are constitutional under the federal constitution.
I think the only way that the inspection regime might be found to be unconstitutional would be if an action were brought alleging that this was unconstitutional under the Declaration of Rights in Commonwealth's Constitution. That is more complicated than it sounds, however, given how intertwined with federal law (but not necessarily hopelessly intertwined) all of this is. Of course, the easiest way to get this stopped would be to get Congress and the General Court to draft legislation proscribing the inspections, but you can rest assured that there is no one in either body who has the guts to do that.
who is telling T police to search?
I bet its some administrator, politican, or legal advisor and not a cop.....
You know I don't like to see cops blamed for everything!
Someone Might, But Practical Effect The Same
"... you can rest assured that there is no one in either body who has the guts to do that."
I'd suggest Ron Paul from Texas as your best bet to introduce such legislation, but I'd hold little hope of ever seeing it enacted.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Is there any need for MBTA transit police at all?
If the T is losing lots of money, this is one of the first things I'd cut. Let Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Quincy, Braintree, Brookline, and Newton handle any 911 calls made from T stations in their cities and towns.
They selected me for a
They selected me for a random search this morning, but didn't really seem to be paying attention while they were doing it. I was glad a recent plane trip didn't leave me with anything detectable on my bags.
I had been planning to stop and take a picture of the nice piles of shiny new escalator steps, maybe they read my intent to photograph and thought I was trouble.
Was this a planned stop today, or could it have been in response to the "suspicious" letters recieved at local hospitals yesterday?
not effective when you can tell it's happening
They did bag searches at porter today. You can always tell it's happening before getting to the station because there will be a MBTA police van and car parked in the fire lane.
So if a terrorist with a bomb actually wanted to attack the system, he or she could scope that out without going near the station, then just walk over to davis or harvard and proceed with his or her nefarious plans.
This is only a test
You know, if they *actually* had a reason to believe that they'd need to perform one of these bag checks for real, they'd probably setup at *every* station nearby.
These are just training sessions. In the case of a real emergency, expect there to be a detail at every damn station slowing down the entire system, ruining your day, and probably still not catching a determined terrorist (who would probably just blow themselves up in the checkpoint lines killing as many or more than they would on the train itself...).
random checks also
eliminate profiling issues too. Thats why 80 year old ladies get searched at the airport as much as other people....
But they serve little to no purpose
and are a waste of fare and taxpayer resources.
Plus there's the whole unconstitutional thing
Checkpoints, random searches without probable cause, fear of authorities... I'm just old enough to remember that this was what we were told life in Soviet Russia was like.
We, of course, were the brave, freedom-loving Americans, who defined ourselves by contrasting with the Soviets.
If they don't do that stuff
they get sued for profiling and end up costing more than the fares they might lose. Thats probably the theory anyway.
Cost vs Freedom
On the other hand,
I don't remember if it was Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson who said this, but there's truth to the saying "S/he who sacrifices liberty for a modicum of (temporary) safety deserves neither."
Yea I would tend to agree but......
I don't think Jefferson or Franklin would ever think about suicide bombers, hijacking airplanes, columbine shootings or kidnapping and hostage situations....
I would love to know their thoughts though on this kind of stuff.
I could make a good guess
Transport the Founding Fathers here, explain the threats and some of the simultaneously ineffectual yet Constitution-shredding measures... and I think you'd see a reaction akin to when Jesus discovered the money-changers. :)