Bag searches at Union Station on Wednesday

Passengers at Union Station in Los Angeles were having their bags searched by police Wednesday afternoon as part of a new security push by the rail carrier.

Sheriff's deputies and Transportation Security Administration officers were conducting the searches. Metrolink received a federal grant earlier this year to do the searches and left fliers in June for passengers, telling them that the searches would soon begin.

At the time, agency officials said the searches were not in response to any specific threats but instead were being done as an overall push to tighten security, as other rail carriers have done.

The agency has been searching passengers' bags at other stations, but Metrolink spokesman Francisco Oaxaca said this was the first time searches were done at Union Station.

--Steve Hymon

Comments

[DavidK]

I think far more people have died due to Metrolink drivers than any object passengers have carried in their belongings. How about this: conduct a search for competent train operators.

[cph]

I was running for the 6pm train to San Bernardino last night. Upon entering the tunnel I saw a big sign, "All Passengers subject to search". Uh-oh. Each of the ramps to the Metrolink train platforms were either blocked off with yellow tape, or had Sheriff's deputies and dogs. Luckily they just waved me through, and I got on my train with just minutes to spare. But what if they had chosen me for a search? I would have been waiting at Union Station for another hour...

[Joseph Riser]

First steps in security might include getting Metro's own people to practice what their employer preaches. All day long they play audio and video annoucements on buses and trains telling passengers to "report any suspicious packages." Yet, a few weeks ago, while sitting in the back of a long-haul crosstown bus, I noticed an unattended, overstuffed backpack had been left on an empty bench seat across from me. Recalling the warnings, I asked others around it was theirs, and then decided to be a "good citizen" and walked it up to the front of the bus -- (I know. . . stupid of me if it was a "bomb' or something). I told the driver "we're supposed to report stuff like this to you, in case it''s anything dangerous." He just grunted something, pointed to the open space near the window, right by the front door, and said "put it there." Then, he continued on his route, and did nothing more. I went back to the back and tried to decide "am I far enough away to survive when the bomb goes off" or "should I remind him of his 'duty' to report things." While I didn't want to be held up getting to work either -- by Metro police seaches, or whatever -- I finally took the cowardly, self-preservationist route, and just got off the bus early and waited for the next one to come along (which then, ironically, tailgated my first bus the rest of the route -- so I never really got that far away). I left feeling stupid for saying anything, but wondering if I'd feel guilty later on if something did happen to the remaining passengers because I hadn't done more. In the end, I figured Metro's only playing those recordings because their lawyers want to "C" the agency's collective "A" against possible future legal actions.

[Spokker]

It won't mean anything unless you guys refuse to be searched. Show up at a Metrolink station and see that they are checking bags? Turn around and drive your car. Most Metrolink riders have them.

Getting checked at Union Station? Refuse and get picked up by a loved one instead. Have an express bus backup plan if possible.

But if you let it happen, it'll keep on happening. You accept it by your refusal to refuse.

[Spokker]

Was everybody searched or was it random? What effect did it have on passengers getting to their trains? Was anybody made late by the checks?

What a slippery slope, and for what, security theater? To eventually make traveling by train as uncomfortable as air?

In any case, it begins.

[M]

Metrolink customers, having their Fourth Amendment rights taken away since June 2008!

[Anonymous]

If Metrolink is genuniely interested in protecting the safety of their passengers, I think they'd do better to search their engineers for cell phones, rather than infringing on the civil liberties of the traveling public by asking them to submit to warrantless, suspicionless searches.

As conducted, the searches aren't effective, anyway -- anyone carrying contraband is free to leave and go to another station or return another day.

It's all just for show.