In Big Apple and beyond, security alters commuter life

This morning, many of America's 32 million straphangers are feeling the impact of the London tube bombings.

Transit systems from New York to Salt Lake City are expanding security operations, asking some of those bleary-eyed commuters to open their suitcases, backpacks, and briefcases for inspection. Bomb-sniffing dogs are padding up and down the aisles of trains, sniffing shoes and packages. Almost all are seeing an increase in armed police.

But security experts and political leaders are calling for much more to be done - and not just for a few weeks. Some want more spent on police, more video surveillance, and the development of other technology that may provide protection. The result is likely to be even more Americans finding their daily lives changed by terrorism.

"When a security incident or actual terrorism incident occurs, we react by heightening security, but then we go back to business as usual," says David Gaier, a transportation security consultant. "I think it's going to have to change permanently. We're going to have to accept that we're going to have put up with a level of inconvenience and intrusiveness that we've never known in this country."

But civil libertarians say it's more than an inconvenience: It could have long term implications on rights most Americans now take for granted. "We are living in a new society if the police can stop anyone without any suspicion whatsoever," says Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "It may spell the end to one of our most basic protections - that you can't be stopped without cause."

Even security experts are uncertain about the best way to protect mass transit. But there is general agreement that a combination of deterrents works best. "We're all trying to come to terms with what the solutions are, recognizing that there is a gap there now," says Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. "Obviously, in a more conventional [security] mode, it becomes a game of cat and mouse where they're always looking for defenses to get around. The randomness can keep an adversary on edge, so they know there's a chance they might get caught."

But more protection is also expensive. In a survey, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) found transit systems need $6 billion for everything from more explosives-sniffing dogs to making bridges and tunnels bomb resistant. "We're estimating our industry is spending in excess of $900,000 per day on security beyond the norm," says Greg Hull, APTA's director of operations, safety, and security.

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