Public transport security refers to measures taken by a

mass transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

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 closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal ...

, 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, such as a transit district, railway, railroad, bus line, or another mas ...

force, and other techniques. Public transport security has become a major issue around the world since the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, 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 commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's ...

. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

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

, 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, 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 accompl ...

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.

References

{{Public transport Security Public transport

Security measures

See also

References