So I got to take a trip to the Space Center in Houston. Being the geek that I am, I had images of pneumatic tubes and blinking lights encased in a high-tech building filled with jumpsuited personnel. Sadly there wasn’t any pneumatic tubes, but there was a bunch of blinking lights and jumpsuits. More importantly that was absolutely horrible security.
Given the environment that formed after 9/11, I understand the need for enhanced security at certain sites. What I can’t understand is bad security used to give the feeling of safety. Case in point is the Houston Space Center. After you buy your ticket you head towards the entrance where a security guard is standing letting people in. As I approached I heard him asking “any pocket knives, weapons?”. It seemed like a good idea till I realized they weren’t doing anything that beyond that, they didn’t actually check for any weapons. The guard confronted people, asked them if they had a weapon, and then waved them in if they said they didn’t. No checks, no metal detectors, nothing. I’m not sure exactly how they were expecting terrorists to answer, but clearly they intended for an honest answer. As always with security checkpoints, I was able to get my pocket knife through without any effort (I gotta remember I have that thing on my keychain before I go through checkpoints), showing the absurdity of this kind of security.
The second example of “bad security” at the Space Center is the checkpoint they put you through at the tram entrance. This time they had a metal detector in addition to the security guard. The problem was that you could place your bag on the table next to the metal detector and walk through. Again no search, just the assumption that terrorists will answer honestly to questioning or keep weapons on their body.
Now, maybe, just maybe this second type of security will catch a impulse criminal, but those are the people who don’t do any planning, any sort of surveillance work. Real terrorists, people who want to commit serious damage will scout out the place they are going to attack. 9/11 happened because they planned their attack. They didn’t wake up on 9/10 and say “I’m going to hijack a plane”. Lots of thought went into the attacks. And anyone who wants to attack the Space Center will scout the place out and will see these weaknesses. They will be able to exploit them and be able to do serious damage. All this type of security does is give a false sense of safety. People need to be aware of their surrounding and not rely on bad security to provide their security.
Sad to see that the Space Center hasn’t improved their security in the 3 years since I’ve been there. While the Center may not be a prime target for terrorist attacks, the security “theater” (as you aptly put in your post) is a bad imitation of good practices. It falls more in the category of “feeling safe” instead “being safe”. I glad you took ownership and contacted the Center. For some reason it never occurred to me to do so and it’s way too late to offer suggestions as their procedures may have changed. On the plus side I still have my Fisher Space Pen with the Space Center logo. It finally ran out of ink last week
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