Instead of putting in something permanent and valuable, like stop-light cameras at grade crossings to cut down on crashes, the idiots running Metrolink have decided to fritter it away on a transient security program. When the money’s gone, there will be nothing to show for this boondoggle.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) already gets millions of dollars a year for occasional fare inspections and other "random" security tasks. While the rest of the public has to pay for using Metrolink, uniformed LASD employees get a free ride.

Of course with County Supervisors running the Metrolink Board, it’s simply a way to give more money to LASD for what amounts to, basically, nothing. It’s the political equivalent of three-card Monte. Where’s the money now?

Metrolink has no problem violating the constitutional rights of its passengers. In May, it lost the first of it’s attempts to suppress free speech on the Internet. (Wil, you mean you didn’t know about Metrolink’s "famous" trademark? That’s what it alleges in its trademark infringement actions.)

So, after violating its passenger’s First Amendment (speech and assembly) rights, violating its passenger’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures is a no brainer.

And all this from an agency that can’t consistently get its passengers to their destinations on time.

Taxpayers should be outraged at this misuse of Proposition 1B money by self-serving politicians. The fare payers that Metrolink has lured to depend on its service have little recourse.

There should be no more funding of public transit until the politicians are removed from the Boards of the transit agencies.

Don’t you feel safer already? I’ll certainly be relieved to know that I won’t be sitting next to a violent criminal.

I’ve got a problem though. I don’t yet have my non-violent criminal identification card yet. And how are the sheriff deputies going to pick and choose whose baggage they inspect? Isn’t profiling politically incorrect and racist? And don’t violent criminals have rights too?

I guess you could observe the frequency of the baggage inspections (1 every nth passenger?), and then get in line so as not to be the nth person through the checkpoint. That assumes, however, that the deputies are good at keeping count of anything other than their overtime hours?

Or could you just wait until the train pulls into the station and then go through? Are the sheriff’s going to inspect your baggage when you might miss the train and violate Metrolink’s stated policy to "ensure that [the passenger] commute schedule is not affected?"

Of course, the waiting strategy will virtually ensure that you’ll have to stand because there won’t be any seats left due to the gross overcrowding caused by Metrolink’s abject failure to plan beyond what they’re eating for lunch. But isn’t that a small price to pay to protect your constitutional rights?

And what about Union Station? Will riders boarding there be subject to these random inspections too? Or is it presumed that no terrorist would ever dare to board at Union Station? What a joke!

And you better leave your pocket knives, scissors, and nail clippers at home. After all, there’s no telling what the deputies might consider "weapons, explosives, or other dangerous items."

Curiously, there’s no mention of what they’re going to do if the deputies find something objectionable. Will they confiscate it and let you ride the train? Will you be able to get it back later? Will you get an infraction ticket? (Is there such a thing?)

I would guess that postal service employees (with apologies) would come under special scrutiny. And, if you want to shoot up your office that day, just don’t take the train, or a take a later train after the deputies have packed up their tables.

At the Industry station, the 5:24 a.m. passengers are known to use filled water bottles to hold their places in line. (I know, those people at Industry are very curious birds.) Those bottles hold well over three ounces of liquid. Will they now have to innovate?

And for you parents who bring toddlers on the train with you, you’ll have to do without the talcum powder — anthrax, you know.

And for you closet weirdos, you better stop carrying anything that you might be embarrassed to have exposed to your fellow train riders.

And for all you drug users riding the trains, you better start leaving your stash at home.

Oh, wait. I’m sorry. Drug users don’t "ride" the trains, they "run" the trains.

Check out the latest in LA commuter rail’s innovations in security theater — random bag searches of passengers. …

Right no there is really no pre-boarding security on either system. I have taken the Metrolink from OC to LA and then onto the Metro many times, and a few times, could have done is without a ticket. The conductors on the Metrolink do check the tickets after one is in the middle of the trip, but there is no such check on the Metro.
As opposed to MARTA in Atlanta, or the Tube in London, or the Muni in San Francisco, so far the only thing my purchased Metro ticket has been used for is a bookmark. In those other locations, you need to use the ticket to enter AND exit the stations.

Does this mean I will be labeled a terrorist or violent criminal for carrying the pocket knife I have been carrying for 18 years? or will they be too busy looking at my bag to notice it clipped to my pocket the way the Disneyland Cast Members Security does?