Police Profiling

After the London bomb attacks in 2005, various crazy suggestions went round about making all train passengers (and their luggage) go through a security scan when entering a station. This was before it was realised that 6 million journeys are made a day from some 3,000 stations and tram stops. Oh.

Anyway, West Yorkshire Police, in their infinite wisdom, and under the guise of an attempt to reduce knife attacks in Leeds Ciy Centre on a Saturday night, decided to pull over male passengers coming out from the ticket barriers - presumably on the basis that they looked shifty, aggressive, or Asian (I'm making this up, but it sounds better that way). I got pulled over, had to deposit the contents of my pockets (mobile phone, cards, cash, keys, iPod, torch) in a tray, and walk through a metal detector. Never mind I was carrying a heavy backpack and a jute shopping bag which weren't searched. Both of them contained sharp objects which could be used to cause injury (swiss army knife, screwdrivers, sharp nosed pliers)... but hey, they were the West Yorkshire Police - I wasn't exactly expecting them to be thorough, or effective.