My local train station – the one I use to get to work every day – doesn’t have any barriers. As a result, there’s no real ticket check on the way in and out. To avoid ticket evasion, they have ticket inspectors on the trains, and spot checks. If you travel on the train at the weekend, you have about a 50% chance of being checked. If you travel on a weekday in rush hour, you have about a 1% chance of being checked. I’d have thought capturing the commuter who’s evading a £1000+ season ticket is probably of more importance than a teenager avoiding a £5 Travelcard. But there you go.
When the train company carries out spot checks, they send a team of ticket inspectors to the station and check tickets on the way in and out, handing out penalty fares to evaders. But it’s important to note that they’re employees of the rail company.
So this morning I was surprised to see the police checking tickets. While it’s an offence to travel without a valid ticket, I was under the impression that the rail company determines that, and only then do any legal ramifications take place – either a fine, a court appearance or whatever. There might be police officers in attendance to deal with unruly customers who won’t pay a fine, or try to run off, but the police tend to be upholding the law rather than enforcing a rail company’s rules.
In a post 9/11 7/7 world, that’s obviously changed.
Once the police had looked at my ticket, I rounded a corner to be confronted by a collapsible machine that looked something like this:

(Picture sourced from Avanti Security.)
Regaled with green flashing LEDs, I took it to be a metal detector. I had to walk through it.
To be honest, I would have stopped to ask, but my train was departing in about 30 seconds and I was running to catch that. Unusually the “detector” didn’t stop me, which considering I was carrying money, mobile phone, iPod, various electronic gadgets, a belt and a metal watch, was a little odd.
Perhaps the device is tuned to pick up large knives? Or maybe it’s not a metal detector at all.
What on earth was the point? As far as I’m aware, there haven’t been a spate of knife attacks on my commuter service. And while I think someone did get shot a few miles away over Christmas, I’m not exactly on the mean streets of Baltimore (sorry – been watching The Wire DVD boxsets recently).
So what was the purpose?
The ticket inspection aspect is fine, but these machines are just supposed to make us feel safer aren’t they? We’re supposed to believe that the government is doing something about crime. The chances of someone actually being captured for a serious offence is surely remote without prior intelligence.
This report suggests that 50 knives were found when the devices were used in Birmingham. I’d be surprised if much more than a Swiss Army Knife was found in this morning’s sweep.