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- DC Random Searches: An Oxymoron
- Byron A. Ellis-December 04, 2008
Washington DC Metro System random search policy is an oxymoron. Randomness is a process whose outcome does not follow a deterministic pattern. It is a probabilistic distribution that is unbiased and uncorrelated. Thus, humans having the ability to observe and endue with built in biases are incapable of random selection.
The DC transit authority claims that riders will have the ability to reject the search. Therefore, what is the benefit of the search?
Perhaps they are assuming that terrorists would voluntarily acquiesce to a search, or become nervous. Such assumption appears more like wishful thinking than real police intelligence work.
Apparently, the DC transit authority is preparing to deal with unsophisticated dumb terrorists. Recent history, however, refutes the notion that terrorists are unsophisticated or dumb.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution guard against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Amendment requires that searches and arrest warrants be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause and limited in scope according to specific information supplied by a person who is accountable to the issuing court.
Random searches, therefore, violate the Fourth Amendment and are likely to be biased towards foreigners, minorities, and the poor.
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