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Lapses in Metro security
By Phillip Kreutz |
March 18, 2010, Thursday
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DEAR editor,
I am writing in reply to your article "Metro checks go system wide" published on Tuesday.
According to this article, all Metro stops have gone online. However I must say that the Metro checking that I have seen in non-peak stop locations is poor at best. My points:
Location Line 2 (Shanghai Science & Technology Museum Stop)
I witnessed more than one passenger skip the security queue all together (no one caught it) and enter the Metro. I witnessed one guard (who actually looked like a volunteer in a yellow vest) monitoring the entrance, but unable to control the barrier since the barrier was not solid.
As a result (my point above), passengers were skipping the security.
I witnessed that the barriers are poor at best, since they are not solid and do not prevent passengers from going under them.
I mean really, you have 70 million visitors expected to come for the World Expo, but with this sort of Mickey Mouse handling of security anyone could get a dangerous item on the train an wreak havoc on the city.
I witnessed passengers passing bags/packages from the public side of the barrier over the glass barrier that separates customers who had already entered.
Again, another opportunity for dangerous items to enter, without one word from security.
I witnessed scanning equipment incapable of accommodating large bags for scanning. (How does this happen?)
I do not mean to be rude, but after living here for almost nine years I really thought that Shanghai would get this right.
If this is the way security is administered, then we had all better hope no smart terror-minded individual will take advantage of these gaps in the system.
Further, I feel it is my responsibility to report this back to you - the media - to draw attention to this and make it much improved, while the opportunity is still there.
I am writing in reply to your article "Metro checks go system wide" published on Tuesday.
According to this article, all Metro stops have gone online. However I must say that the Metro checking that I have seen in non-peak stop locations is poor at best. My points:
Location Line 2 (Shanghai Science & Technology Museum Stop)
I witnessed more than one passenger skip the security queue all together (no one caught it) and enter the Metro. I witnessed one guard (who actually looked like a volunteer in a yellow vest) monitoring the entrance, but unable to control the barrier since the barrier was not solid.
As a result (my point above), passengers were skipping the security.
I witnessed that the barriers are poor at best, since they are not solid and do not prevent passengers from going under them.
I mean really, you have 70 million visitors expected to come for the World Expo, but with this sort of Mickey Mouse handling of security anyone could get a dangerous item on the train an wreak havoc on the city.
I witnessed passengers passing bags/packages from the public side of the barrier over the glass barrier that separates customers who had already entered.
Again, another opportunity for dangerous items to enter, without one word from security.
I witnessed scanning equipment incapable of accommodating large bags for scanning. (How does this happen?)
I do not mean to be rude, but after living here for almost nine years I really thought that Shanghai would get this right.
If this is the way security is administered, then we had all better hope no smart terror-minded individual will take advantage of these gaps in the system.
Further, I feel it is my responsibility to report this back to you - the media - to draw attention to this and make it much improved, while the opportunity is still there.
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