Bag searches at attractions

[trinity0097]

I can't see the point of these if they don't actually properly search. Was at the Natural History Museum today, and the bored looking man asked me if I had a pen knife or scissors. I said no, he barely looked in the bag and didn't look in the tied up carrier bag (happened to be of dirty clothes!) at the bottom of my backpack. I could have carried anything in. Also teenage foreign students didn't have their bags searched.

It meant the queue to get in was about an hour long as they only had 3 people checking bags.

DH thought the search was because royalty were on site, I reckon they do them all the time though!

I don't know he you can figure out it was one of two men, when there were 3 men doing bag searches at the entrance I used! Unless you were one of them?!

One woman was also there, but she got the hump, argued with what appeared to be a more supervisory chap, who then took over checking bags whilst she appeared to flounce off.

I know full well that I had nothing to hide, but equally there was absolutely nothing stopping me bringing things I shouldn't have in with me, as the bag search was so useless. If the are checking bags them they should make a show of actually checking bags thoroughly, e.g. Opening all compartments, checking inside bags inside bags.

My husband was carrying his CPAP machine, you know a weird looking piece of equipment with a face mask. Not normal stuff to bring to a museum (but we had only spent one night in London and so were carrying our luggage with us) - you would have thought that would illicit at least a question about what it was - after all if someone wanted to set off some toxic gas a mask to pump them something fresh to breathe would be sensible! Not many people would recognise a CPAP machine from a cursory glance, nor would I expect them to.

I've been through NYC security for museums, that were like airport style, with bag scanners and walk through metal detecting gates - if we are serious about checking bags and visitors that is the type of security I would expect to see, not a cursory glance at the top of a bag only. Also I can't see anything obvious on the website that says you will be checked and that certain items are banned from being brought into the museum.

MadisonAvenue I' agree about the female queue at Old Trafford. It's horrendously long. If you use the big carpark opposite the stadium they use a mirror to check underneath the car for bombs. I can only assume they are acting on some form of intelligence.

cowgirls plus you have to get past a line of security as you approach the stadium on foot too. There's been a few occasions when we've arrived very close to kick off and have found that male security on the turnstiles call women over to their queue and just do a quick bag check and no pat down.

I don't know he you can figure out it was one of two men, when there were 3 men doing bag searches at the entrance I used! Unless you were one of them?!

Yes, I was there.

If you have an issue with me or my co-workers or how you claim we treated you then I respectfully suggest a public forum is not the best place for it.

Luckily there's no danger that a bag search that is intended to detonate a suicide bombers bomb in the bag in a crowded area could ever happen.

Oh, hang on ...

Incidentally we are all fully trained in a wide range of disability access issues including the use of CPAP machines. My co-workers would certainly have recognised it and therefore not needed to ask questions about it.

Again: what you see or what you perceive you see is only a tiny fraction of the monitoring and security measures in place.

Maybe they only did more thorough searches on people who they considered at higher risk of commiting a terrorist attack if it gets very busy. So perhaps waving through organised student groups and little old ladies?

Perhaps you only looked semi-dodgy op, so just had a quick search!

Interested to know about the cat food and tom jones!

But if the searches were more outwardly thorough it would make people think that they were worth something (and make standing around in a terribly British queue for an hour appear worth it!) and put minds at rest. A search (at any institution) that appears perfunctory just makes you think that it was a waste of time and makes the general public just believe that anyone with bad intentions would get through.

I worked in a shopping center. We had to have terrorism training and I have been on high alert (once prep for evacuation, just after sept 11th) the people shopping woyld have had no idea. Just at that point, me and my assistant who had our evac packs. Im guessing there is alot more to it behind the scenes

I can understand that, but no. Any decent security is that which you cannot see - being visible defeats the object. A more overt display might make some people feel more comfortable but in practical terms would not be wise. Our agenda is to keep you safe, not to give you a false sense of security or make you less pissed off about having to queue.

Men breeze in quickly as there're always more than enough male officers on a turnstile to do checks yet just one female so their queue is long and for some reason they're more thorough than the men.

Can you imagine if a female officer missed an explosive device on someone? The tabloids would crucify her. "This is why we shouldn't let women be police officers, waah, waah, waah."

At the Taj Mahal they confiscate packs of playing cards - considered irreverent...

My dad once told me that the Red Cross used to send parcels to prisoners of war in WW2, but the playing cards would be removed as the top layer when scraped off could be used as an explosive. I have no idea if this is true..............