An item on NY1 told of a new NYPD strategy to combat terrorism. It stated that police would conduct random searches on people's bags in the public transit system.

I suspect the article got it wrong, though. While having people comply with a bag search before coming on the system may be be legal (although probably not particularly effective), the very suggestion that police have the power to randomly search one's person without even particularized suspicion is ridiculous.

In the case of search-on-entry, a person not desiring to having his bag subject to prying eyes could opt not to enter the system. A random search system would allow the police to search based on any criteria, even none at all. What would happen if a suspect refused? Would he be ejected from the system? Would he be refunded his fare? Would he be searched forcibly? This is akin to the police being given the power to randomly search homes. Hey, I don't like the looks of that guy. Let's search his bag.

Base10 is no namby-pamby ACLU'er, but he is a trained attorney. The idea that random searches are possible is preposterous.

UPDATE: This story on Fox News seems to confirm Base10's opinion. The searches are being done before entry.

- posted by Base10 @ 9:43 PM