News - Local

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008

Lon Allan: Security measures should fit the threat, not overreact to them

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Since my retirement from full-time newspaper reporting four years ago, I don’t get around much anymore.

In the course of my job I would occasionally have to go to the county courthouse in San Luis Obispo.

When I went again recently, I was outraged at what I encountered as I approached the District Attorney’s Office.

Much like they require at the airport, I was asked to put everything in my pockets in little plastic trays and then walk through the metal detector. Angry, I refused and just waited in the lobby while my wife finished her business.

I refuse to fly on an airplane because of all this silly security stuff.

I even resented being asked to do a urine test as a requirement for job a few years ago. A friend, trying to console me, said it’s “just the way it is” these days. I see no reason for it at all though.

It’s probably my age, but I don’t like what America has become. It seems we’re going overboard to ensure everyone’s safety and peace of mind.

Recently I learned that Union Bank is going to install something called a Controlled Access Unit in its branch offices. Such a unit is set to make its appearance in Atascadero next month. According to branch manager Linda House, Union Bank’s president believes the extra security measures are necessary because of the potential of injury to either bank employees or customers.

The device will consist of what appears to be a glass cubicle you’ll enter from the main entrance. It allows only one person to enter at a time.

After you enter, the door locks. An overhead metal detector then takes a reading, and if you set off the alarm you will be directed to empty your pockets into a tray.

You can’t proceed into the main lobby of the bank until everything is “OK” and the door is unlocked. Nobody can go out while another person is in the Controlled Access Unit.

One such unit has already been installed in a Union Bank branch in Fresno.

Are such precautions necessary in Atascadero? I don’t think so.

The branch manager said the local Union Bank branch office was robbed in May and once before 12 years ago.

“You can’t be too cautious,” someone said when I was venting about this whole issue of stepped-up security almost everywhere we turn.

But I disagree. Growing up, I was always frightened by those movies that showed ordinary citizens in a county where they had to “show papers” at a myriad of check points.

We seem to be a knee-jerk nation that overreacts to threats. Because someone tampered with a few bottles of aspirin, I now find it almost impossible to open any medicine containers — or even a jar of mayonnaise.

We need to weigh the freedom to come and go and match the threat with same-level measures.

Unfortunately, more and more it appears the easier way is to simply overreact.

Lon Allan has lived in Atascadero for more than four decades. He can be reached at leallan@tcsn.net.