Sweeping changes to protect Sydney
By Andrew Clennell and Alexandra Smith July 26, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald Commuters could have their bags randomly searched, bomb-sniffing dogs could patrol stations and closed-circuit television could be expanded across the city under drastic measures planned to protect Sydney from a terrorist attack. The Premier, Bob Carr, yesterday revealed that the State Government was preparing to introduce legislation to allow police to randomly search bags at train stations and on public transport. But Mr Carr immediately ruled out regular "systematic searching of bags", saying this would happen only in the event of a heightened threat of a terrorist attack. "There is a civil liberties concern, of course," Mr Carr said. "I acknowledge that, but London has demonstrated that the risk is real, and I would think that people would agree that your civil liberty not to have your bag searched is outweighed by my right not to be blown up when I travel on public transport." Mr Carr said it would be unrealistic to have widespread bag searches during peak hours. "It is a needle in a haystack, but if there is a rise in the threat level and the police have got a presence at a station, there's someone there with a heavy backpack and there are wires sticking out of it, I don't think it's an unreasonable thing that it be searched." Mr Carr said 25 bomb dogs used by the police could be deployed on trains. "Not one of these tools - closed-circuit TV or bomb dogs or random searches of bags - is going to remove all the risk, but taken together they increase the armoury that our police may well need," Mr Carr told 2UE. As Mr Carr detailed the proposed changes, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore - known for her years of campaigning for civil liberties - admitted she had had a rethink on the use of closed-circuit television. In a clear ideological shift, Councillor Moore, has scheduled a meeting with the Police Minister, Carl Scully, to discuss expanding the city's closed-circuit television network to plug gaps. "Times have changed," she admitted. "In the past, the compelling reasons for closed-circuit television haven't been there for me," Cr Moore said. "With heightened risk of terrorism, it is time to rethink current arrangements." But Cr Moore denied her support for the expansion of closed-circuit television was a change of heart, instead insisting that the effectiveness of the technology in other cities such as Perth had influenced her thinking. The City of Sydney has about 50 CCTV cameras spread across Chinatown, Circular Quay, Belmore Park at Haymarket, Cook and Phillip Park, George Street and the city's retail strip. There are two in North Sydney but none in Parramatta. The Opposition Leader, John Brogden, said random bag checks should be dumped in favour of greater use of "bomb dogs" on public transport. "It would be less obtrusive . the concept of stopping a couple of hundred people while checking their bags, whilst being disruptive, won't even be as effective as using a dog," Mr Brogden said. The move by Mr Carr follows a decision last week by New York authorities to start random bag searches on railway networks in response to the London bombings. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
