Where everyone knows your name… and what's in your bag.

Last month, Boston transit cops announced plans to check "suspicious" passengers for ID.

Now, they want to randomly search any passengers:

Next month, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will become the first transit agency in the nation to institute a permanent policy of randomly inspecting passenger bags and packages on subway and commuter trains, MBTA police officials disclosed yesterday…

"I have no trepidation about being first,'' [MBTA Police Chief Joseph] Carter said. "I don't want to be the first to do an interview about having a serious incident that may have some terrorist indications to it. I want to be in a position to prevent and detect and apprehend someone prior to them causing damage. We want to do this to encourage people to feel safe on the MBTA, to utilize public transportation…''

Carter, who confirmed that the agency was developing the plans, said T officials have not announced the policy because he and other police officials are still working out the details on how to balance security and privacy concerns.

"Everything we do here is to protect and uphold and defend the constitutional rights of everyone, particuarly our patrons on the system," Carter said. "That is one of the reasons why the policy is not something that is just sitting there, ready for us to publish tomorrow morning. . . . How do we do this to make sure constitutional rights are in place? We don't want to abridge those rights, but in this era, we need the highest degree of security."

Comments

[Patrick]

The hassle will bother me more than the principle of it. We need "Total Recall"-style, wall-size X-ray scanners. And of course they have to be infallible, and never break down 🙂
Until then, like garym said, this will be useless. Especially since there seems to be an unlimited supply of people who are willing to walk around with live bombs.

[a typical right-wing poster]

If you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to fear.

[garym]

Incidentally, bags of almost every description are already banned in Fleet Center, which houses North Station. As far as I can tell, the ban is enforced only for spectator events, but the signs say it applies to everyone entering the building, "no exceptions." If the MBTA ignores existing absurd regulations, what's the point of new ones?

[split lip rayfield]

if you crotch it, they won't find your stash

[Jennifer]

It is the duty of every patriotic American to politely and respectfully refuse to show their ID on demand. Perhaps this weekend I'll visit my buddy in Boston, leave my ID at his place, and ride the trains around and around until someone asks to see it.

[Randy]

Wow. That is nearly unbelievable. Seems only a matter of time until they institute this policy in NYC.

[garym]

Normally I carry a briefcase every day to and from work. I expect that I'll stop doing this except when it's really necessary.

Morally, I'm actually less bothered by this than by the random ID checks; at least the baggage checking serves some purpose. But if they check just one bag in every 100, they'll stop only one bomb in 100. If they check one bag in three, they'll bring travel to a grinding halt.

Today firefighters were picketing outside North Station in Boston, with signs reading "No contract, no convention." This undoubtedly had lots of commuters hoping the labor impasse will continue indefinitely.

[Steven Crane]

Unreasonable search & seizure? Hello? McFly?

Bueller?

Of course, this policy of "randomly" searching passengers has absolutely no potential to be used to harass minorities, grumpy passengers, or simply funny lookin' people.

So, uh... still liking the public-transportation thing, joe?

[Nicholas]

And, once this is a howling success in Boston, it's a lead-pipe cinch that it will be extended to non-public-transit users, too. Random car stops? We're already there. Random pedestrian stops? Happens already. So, except for the scale of the whole thing, what's actually changing here?

[Feqmxa]

They should install Bill or Rights toilet paper in the bathrooms.

[SteveInClearwater]

Jennifer, I only carry ID to do my banking.

I carry my drivers license in the car, but leave it there once parked.

I am happy to identify myself, but am not happy to 'prove it' with a piece of paper which - were I up to anything criminal - would contain false information anyway.

Oh, and as to the immediate followup question, "Date of Birth?", my response is a smile and "A girl never tells her age to a stranger".

Seriously...I was a witness to a minor auto accident right outside my townhouse door (about 100 feet away...car ran up on the grass...drunk dude) and I called the cops to help clean up the scene.

The responding officer asked my name (I replied) and where I lived (pointed right at my front door) and then my DOB. I told him he didn't need that and he said, "Why?" which was pretty funny so I just repeated that and reverted to SOP which is, "Thank you for coming out, if you need anything else from me, you can knock on my door."

[db]

The doublespeak is so thick in those quotes it's scary. To paraphrase, "of course, _no one_ wants to have their Constitutional rights abridged, but here, in these uncertain times, we have to abridge Constitutional rights to protect Constitutional rights. Isn't that clear to you? Everyone else gets it."

Sca-ry. Does the fact that the T is owned by the state make it OK to violate the Constitution?

[garym]

Jennifer: As far as I can tell from personal experience, you'd have to wait a long time before being asked for your ID. Wearing a burka and looking around furtively might help.