What do you think this will do the scales in Tennessee? We could either get pulled in for a inspection and wait for an inspector or we could get the bypass lane more often. This rule could be like others it looks good in print but in reality life goes on and nothing happens.
Road Searches: No good answer
By: TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF
Published: December 13, 2011 Richmond Times Dispatch, December 13, 2011
Truckers and bus drivers in Tennessee have a new irritant: The Volunteer State has become the first to begin inspecting big vehicles for potential terrorist devices. Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams will operate five weigh stations and two bus depots.
"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found?" asks Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons. "Not these days on an airplane — more likely on the interstate."
That's probably a tough statement to prove, but assume he's right. Why stop with trucks and buses? Most VBIEDs — vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices — are carried by cars and light-duty trucks, not 18-wheelers. If Gibbons is right, then Tennessee should be inspecting every vehicle, just as airports inspect every passenger.
And that, of course, is the problem. Suicide bombers could be anywhere — on the road, at the mall, outside the elementary school. Security agencies either have to search everybody, all the time — an impossible proposition — or they have to search only certain people.
If they search only certain people, then they have to do it one of two ways. First, they could focus on those they suspect would be most likely to commit mayhem. This leaves them open to charges of racial, ethnic and religious profiling like those that have been brought against the FBI and the New York Police Department. (They can avoid this through behavioral profiling like that employed by Israel, but that leaves them open to the charge of invading personal privacy.)
Second, they could search people at random, hoping to find the occasional terrorist by sheer dumb luck. But that leaves them open to the charge of wasteful stupidity. And neither of the two selective approaches can be anything like 100 percent effective anyway.
A long line of angry truckers, it seems, may be the least of their problems
Road Searches: No good answer
By: TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF
Published: December 13, 2011 Richmond Times Dispatch, December 13, 2011
Truckers and bus drivers in Tennessee have a new irritant: The Volunteer State has become the first to begin inspecting big vehicles for potential terrorist devices. Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams will operate five weigh stations and two bus depots.
"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found?" asks Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons. "Not these days on an airplane — more likely on the interstate."
That's probably a tough statement to prove, but assume he's right. Why stop with trucks and buses? Most VBIEDs — vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices — are carried by cars and light-duty trucks, not 18-wheelers. If Gibbons is right, then Tennessee should be inspecting every vehicle, just as airports inspect every passenger.
And that, of course, is the problem. Suicide bombers could be anywhere — on the road, at the mall, outside the elementary school. Security agencies either have to search everybody, all the time — an impossible proposition — or they have to search only certain people.
If they search only certain people, then they have to do it one of two ways. First, they could focus on those they suspect would be most likely to commit mayhem. This leaves them open to charges of racial, ethnic and religious profiling like those that have been brought against the FBI and the New York Police Department. (They can avoid this through behavioral profiling like that employed by Israel, but that leaves them open to the charge of invading personal privacy.)
Second, they could search people at random, hoping to find the occasional terrorist by sheer dumb luck. But that leaves them open to the charge of wasteful stupidity. And neither of the two selective approaches can be anything like 100 percent effective anyway.
A long line of angry truckers, it seems, may be the least of their problems
