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Public transport security refers to measures taken by a
mass transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
system to keep its passengers and employees safe, to protect the carrier's equipment, and to make sure other violations do not occur. This includes the enforcement of various rules and regulations, human and
video surveillance Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly tr ...
, the deployment of a
transit police Transit police (also known as transport police, railway police, railroad police and several other terms) are specialized police agencies employed either by a common carrier (a transit district, railway, railroad, bus line, or any other mass tran ...
force, and other techniques. Public transport security has become a major issue around the world since the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
, and especially the
2004 Madrid train bombings The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spain as 11M) were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías Madrid, Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days ...
. In the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
at times has put the nation's mass transit systems on high alert, and the U.S. Congress has reconsidered cuts in funding following attacks in other parts of the world.. Grants have been given in order to improve security to mass transit systems in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, while in the United Kingdom, public transport, due to its "open nature", is considered a major potential target for terrorists.


Security measures

It has been proposed that extra security screening of passengers and their bags would be the best option of preventing weapons or bombs on public transport. However, this would also have a number of negative side effects, which could outweigh the benefits, among them: *increased (and prohibitive) costs *reduced public transport convenience, leading to more car travel (and thus road deaths) *making the queues of people waiting for screening vulnerable to attacks *creating a sense of fear and a call for further measures and reduced civil liberties Therefore, most experts recommend against such methods. Like random or profile-based searches of public transport users, they are often considered
security theater Security theater is the practice of taking security measures that are considered to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to achieve it. Disadvantages By definition, security theater provides no security benefit ...
, because random searches will be unlikely to catch the particular terrorist, and profile-based searching allows the terrorist to
reverse engineer Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
the search system, using attackers which are unsuspicious. Passengers are often instructed to be extra-vigilant, including looking out for persons behaving oddly while on or in the vicinity of mass transit vehicles or stations, being dressed out of character for the weather, or leaving behind bags or packages. However, this has also been criticised as scaremongering, as the likelihood of terror attacks on public transport is, for the individual, very low. Individual attacks are also likely to kill fewer people than an attack on an airplane, and are thus of less attractiveness for terrorists. Opponents of security theater therefore argue that even very good security around public transport is relatively useless, as it only moves the threat from transport to other targets - such as movie theaters. They instead advocate spending more money on investigative (police and secret service) ways of apprehending terrorists before they can carry out an attack. Similar arguments have been raised about the United States
Federal Air Marshal Service The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Because of the natur ...
, which provides plainclothes marshals aboard airline flights. According to Congressman John J. Duncan, the air marshals had led to only 4.2 arrests a year, at an average cost of $200 million per arrest. He argued that this represents a win of the perceived dangers of terror, supported by a profit center-type approach, over realistic spending priorities.


See also

*
Armoured bus An armoured bus or armored bus is a type of bus which provides increased protection for passengers, usually against small arms and improvised explosive devices. The bus can be a stock commercial bus with retro-fitted vehicle armour as well as bu ...
*
Guardian Angels A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played a major role in A ...
* City Angels


References

{{Public transport Security Public transport