TSA Agents On Patrol at Union Station to Conduct "Suspicionless" Spot Searches

Photo by LU5H.bunny via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Have you noticed Transportation Security Administration making spot checks on passengers at Union Station? If you haven't, you may soon, since the agency has been ramping up their presence at some of the nation's busiest rail hubs, including L.A.'s historic Union Station.

"As many as 25 VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response) teams began patrolling train stations nationwide last summer conducting an estimated 9,300 'suspicionless' spot searches of travelers," reports CBS2.

Those searches may happen when passengers step off a train into the station, instead of the more expected pre-boarding search. The TSA says they believe "the presence of officers with explosive detection dogs, radiation monitors and other devices will act as a deterrent" inside transit hubs like train stations.

For some passengers, seeing TSA agents is a comfort. Others believe the "suspicionless" searches are an invasion of privacy.

The TSA will be adding 12 more teams of officers on VIPR duty around the country next year.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@laist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Lindsay William-Ross in News on December 27, 2011 1:55 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

jennix

"
The TSA says they believe "the presence of officers with explosive detection dogs, radiation monitors and other devices will act as a deterrent" "

Yer damned skippy they will. A deterrent to rail travel. What a bunch of morons.

Suzanne

Tyranny Strikes Again

my

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
When we give up our basic rights out of fear of possible terrorist actions, then the terrorists have accomplished their mission - the Patriot Act was extended, illegal TSA searches, Guantanamo Bay remains open, Indefinite Detention bill passed, etc. Where have our rights gone? When does it stop?

my

"Those searches may happen when passengers step off a train into the station, instead of the more expected pre-boarding search." Ummm, the bomb would have gone off already. The train wouldn't make the station. These are the idiots running the TSA.

abouthadit

BAAAAAAA BAAAAAAA. I want to be trained by the tyrants that losing my personal freedoms is good for me.

PicoPhreako69

When I hear the phrase "Your papers, please", I'll know it's time to leave for a desert island.

1amwendy

@Dolus, I totally agree. "I do not consent to this search." "I do not consent to this search." Repeat as often as necessary.

Wimpie

Meanwhile, Americans who travel from one part of America to another by plane are subjected to degrading pat downs and electronic strip searches that by no means has been proven medically safe, and are certain to cause some excess cancer deaths.

Because some bad men attacked us ten years ago, we created a nanny security state in which poorly trained bottom rung employees of a vast security apparatus are given god-like powers over those poor schlubs who find themselves in need of a plane ride.

Nothing degrades this nation more than the cowardly ways in which we responded to a one-day flurry of terror. Out of fear of terrorism, we opened the doors wide to fascism.

TSA is nothing more than a conduit through which Congress shovels money to security contractors and the military-industrial complex.

ElizabethConley

Barf. Our federal government is getting increasingly repulsive.

Ron Paul 2012.

The last thing we need are fascist vipers slithering around our public transit hubs.

Leave it to the brood of vipers in D.C. to spawn such foul offspring.

Terri Sweeney

The lateness of the hour seems to be crying out for libertarianism.

Ron Paul?

samazf

Will they have swastickas on their arms? Might as well.

dolus

I'll let the dog sniff me, but those morons will never search me when getting OFF a train. They better have signs posted in whole darn terminal then saying "Persons entering this are subject to screening" the same as airports. Even then, they better have a LEO with them who can make sure my 4th amendment rights aren't violated under the security theater intimidation tactic of "we'll search you how and where we want, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11."

TSA needs to be disbanded. They are an illegal, unmoral and un-American agency.