Just heard this morning that Metro is considering spot-checks of passengers’ bags in the interest of “increased security.”

Say what?

If there’s one way to really piss off Washingtonians, it’s to add further delay and misery to their commute. And the lot who rely on Metro for their ride are especially sensitive to anything that prolongs their interactions with the trains and buses. Will a spot-search of bags help? I don’t think so. If somebody is carrying a nefarious device onto a train, a spot-check isn’t likely to help, as the carrier can simply detonate said device during the search (or hope that the searchers do the same, by accident).

And can you imagine the other questions that may come up:

  • “This bottle of water – do you intend to drink it on the train?”
  • “How’bout this bag of chips? I see it’s been opened…”
  • “You’re reading Catcher In The Rye – you’re obviously out to hurt somebody.”

I kid (at least, I hope it doesn’t resort to this), but you never know what’ll happen.

And Mayor Williams wants to activate surveillance cameras throughout the city, which is a bit of a “damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t” proposition. Frankly, I don’t see it helping very much given how quickly terrorists can act. Just because you have a camera on a location doesn’t mean that you can reflexively react to suspicious activity shown on-screen. A lot of times what you get is a chilling set of images for posterity, nothing more.

If there’s one good development in this whole insecurity mess, it’s that the FAA and TSA have finally come to their senses and lifted the “30-minute rule” for flights to and from National Airport. It was a silly rule from the get-go, and it’s nice to see that calmer heads have finally prevailed.