La policía empezó a hacer chequeos de rutina a los pasajeros del tren de la CTA como táctica antiterrorista. Escogerán a los pasajeros al azar para revisar que sus bolsas no demuestren señales de explosivos. El pasajero que no quiera hacerlo no podrá abordar. In one of the citys most visible security initiatives since the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks, CTA train riders will soon be subjected to random baggage screenings looking for explosives at transit stations, Chicago police and transit officials announced Friday. The plan to use a small team of uniformed police officers to conduct the pop-up screenings at stations is not new. Similar counterterrorism tactics have been in place for years in New York as well as more recently in cities from Washington to Los Angeles. New security measures have been announced to improve safety on CTA trains, under a federal counter-terrorism initiative. Advocates say that in a time of increasing threats from groups such as the Islamic State, the random checks add an important layer to a larger security net, not necessarily by stopping a person carrying a bomb but by creating uncertainty for would-be terrorists who might think twice about targeting the railway. But such tactics have also garnered criticism from civil liberties advocates who argue they violate privacy rights and are an ineffective way to combat a true terrorist threat. When similar procedures were implemented in New York in 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union unsuccessfully sued the police for violating the constitutional rights of passengers. Some criminologists worry the searches could also lead to other thorny issues, such as racial profiling. I hope they keep very good statistics because my guess is a year after this is implemented we will see that young men of color are overwhelmingly the people who are stopped by police, said Len Cavise, who teaches criminal law at the DePaul University College of Law. There will be nothing random about it... Nancy Lipman, commander of the Chicago police Public Transportation Section, said beginning Nov. 3 mobile explosives screening teams consisting of up to six officers will be positioned outside the turnstiles at some transit stations. Screening dates and times wont be disclosed, but stations will have signs to inform passengers as they enter. The officers will ask passengers at random to submit to a screening. A passenger who declines to participate will be denied entry and could be arrested under the officers discretion if they still tried to access the rail system, Lipman said. If the customer is willing to take part in the screening, the outside bag he or she is carrying will be swabbed with a small cloth, Lipman told reporters. The cloth is then inserted into a machine that detects the presence of explosive compounds... Authorities said they took the new counterterrorism measures to try to ensure the safety of passengers and match the moves made in other major cities, not in reaction to any credible threats to Chicago... Cavise, the DePaul lawyer, said that no matter how the police want to characterize it, he doesnt believe that the tactics have a lot to do with catching would-be terrorists. It basically just gives the police the authority to stop anybody and to not even have to make believe that they have probable cause, Cavise said.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:10:00 +0000
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