dood wrote:
Matt wrote:
Many of you are going on about how little the country has done, but, what do you actually expect them to do? What would you do if you had the power?
Have detectors set up on the tube system like in the airports.
It's just too impractical. At the peak time on the underground, you have so many people travelling, so there are just too many people for this scheeme to be successful. Most commuters will set of the detectors as well. Coins, jewelry, even clothing can set it off. You'll have to search people's bags, and this will create a massive backlog, as people are having to wait to have their suitcase searched, their rucksack searched. Imagine during the olympics, when there will be a lot more people than the average commute. It's just too impractical.
Also, in each of the underground stations, say you have 5 barriers. Because of the hours, you will need 2 people on each barrier, per shift, and it must b e 2 shifts per day. That's 20 per station. 260 people on the metropolitan line, which is an average line. 12 lines. You expect us to employ about 6,000 people when the police are already understaffed (And you can't expect underground staff with no training to do this - And even if you wanted them to, it would still be virtually impossible, because a large number of underground staff are leaving their job, and morale is very low.) And this is probably too little. You'll need more security officers, becuase there will be more people in a station. Some stations will need more than 5 barriers, as there are more than one entrances.
And then you have the time it takes to actually install these barriers. I can't tell you the exact number, but there must be about 300 stations on the underground, each one equally as likely to be the target of a bomb attack. If you want to install a metal detector in each, it will take an awful lot longer than 2 weeks to get it done.
A large number of you are complaining that the police aren't doing anything, but they are doing everything they can do. There is a large number of high-visibility policing in each of the stations, as well as undercover (as we saw yesterday in Stockwell station, when the undercover officers shot someone suspsected of the bombings). There is a large number of stop and searches going on, which is the best temporary method the police can put in place until something more permanent is done.