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Security at Theme Parks and Other Public Places

If you check bags you only have that one area to watch. In the US parks they check bags for guns, someone could easily shoot everyone before the bag check, but having one area to police is better than having to watch the whole park. Obviously it's not a perfect system but there you have it.

I find it strange that at BPB if you go through the front entry you have to go through metal detectors but at the back you don't.
 
Bag checks and metal detectors should be enough. I don't see any reason for full body searches to be brought in for places like Towers and that.

I was at a concert in Manchester on Saturday at Old Trafford. They searched bags and did body searches but only on males. Females were allowed in without being searched (due to there being no female security guards at our entrance which I found strange) and there were no metal detectors, but this seemed to do this job just fine as there were no issues surrounding the gig.

If you start asking for more and more security to be brought in then we'll end up at the stage where everyone is strip searched and provided with prison like overalls whilst they're in the park to make sure nothing even remotely dangerous gets in. (Of course I'm joking about that but the layers of security some people think is necessary is way too over the top imo)
 
Totally agree with Andrew. I'm fine with bag checks and the odd metal detector, however this should be enough. I understand that people are concerned with the current situation, however some security suggestions are a little over the top.

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The trouble with places like Chessington, Warwick Castle and Alton is there are plenty of spots along the fence to lob stuff over/cut hole and pass through the stuff they are looking for at the main gate, go through security clean and then go and retrieve said items later.

I'm dreading going to Alton next month if they try to frisk my father, he's likely to get himself arrested for refusing to comply on principle alone, let alone any of the other numerous reasons listed here, being a war baby he doesn't take kindly to "security".

I asked the guy at the Eye last year (after having the wand and bag search) what the policy was for anybody who refused, since he said it was voluntary, and he said you'd be refused entry, which is fair enough, but not in the spirit of the word voluntary...
 
The Genuine security is the stuff that happens behind the scenes, the things that the public do not get to see.
If a group,. or a person is successful in avoiding the security services/police/intel etc and they are determined to get into somewhere then unfortunately they will, which is why the work by agencies such as GCHQ is important.

Before anyone starts running round in a panic, or worrying too much Alton towers, as well as other theme parks and other areas where people gather survived the bad days of the IRA and other such terrorist groups, back then we just picked up and carried on life as before.
If people start to worry and panic then to some extent the terrorists have won, so if the thea
[tre of security is there doing its job - re assuring people and to a smaller extent putting off the copy cat nut jobs then so be it.
But for now ( and for ever more) just keep on going.

As for the Phalanx guards from nemesis sub terra, im not sure even that elite group could reassure through the theatre of security

Then there was also the man in a hard hat, shades, wellies and a red boiler suit guarding a new secret weapon
https://tinyurl.com/yataml4v


Maybe its better to leave the theatre to those who know what they are doing, and the rides to Alton towers
 
IanSR said:
I'm dreading going to Alton next month if they try to frisk my father, he's likely to get himself arrested for refusing to comply on principle alone, let alone any of the other numerous reasons listed here, being a war baby he doesn't take kindly to "security".

I asked the guy at the Eye last year (after having the wand and bag search) what the policy was for anybody who refused, since he said it was voluntary, and he said you'd be refused entry, which is fair enough, but not in the spirit of the word voluntary...
Click to expand...
Your Father sounds like my kind of guy.
 
Maybe cos I'm so used to it what with being from London and a frequenter of football and other events (they do check bags everywhere, though I think theatres are more concerned over food and drink) but does it really matter having your bag searched in the interests of safety?

Like, London Eye, being a famous tourist destination is a blatant target... Hell if someone leaves a bag on board the entire group get stopped by the shop until it's reclaimed... It's an understandable situation in terms of deterring the chance (especially as all bags are x rayed and bigger stuff refused on board)...

This stuff is also done with a sense of duty from the owners... I'm sure Thorpe had a few stabbings (might be hearsay) over the years which led to the higher levels of security compared to the other UK parks, but any searches are usually in order to cover arses (or stop you bringing in BOTTLES in the case of concerts and football)...

Besides, given the threat level has dropped, it's likely so will the levels of security, so whatever 'worry' people have about being searched can be ignored again...
 
Was at thorpe park yesterday and got through search quickly and efficiently but I must note there wasn't many staff batching or organising the queue lines so some rides a bit unorganised. Is there a shortage of staff or have they just reduced numbers?

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Benzin said:
Maybe cos I'm so used to it what with being from London and a frequenter of football and other events (they do check bags everywhere, though I think theatres are more concerned over food and drink) but does it really matter having your bag searched in the interests of safety?

Like, London Eye, being a famous tourist destination is a blatant target... Hell if someone leaves a bag on board the entire group get stopped by the shop until it's reclaimed... It's an understandable situation in terms of deterring the chance (especially as all bags are x rayed and bigger stuff refused on board)...

This stuff is also done with a sense of duty from the owners... I'm sure Thorpe had a few stabbings (might be hearsay) over the years which led to the higher levels of security compared to the other UK parks, but any searches are usually in order to cover arses (or stop you bringing in BOTTLES in the case of concerts and football)...

Besides, given the threat level has dropped, it's likely so will the levels of security, so whatever 'worry' people have about being searched can be ignored again...
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem having a bag search entering a private event or property, such as one of Merlin's parks or The Eye, I'm quiet fine with that since no search = no entry, it's the slippery slope of inevitability that may follow that I have a problem with.

You are a prime example, you're so used to it now it doesn't bother you, so if thing become even tighter in the name of your "security", your generation would probably roll over and acept it, you don't understand why us old farts have a problem with it because you don't know what life was like without it, we do and have a problem with it because there used to be such a thing called due process, but that has been long forgotten and now you're guilty until proven innocent.

You don't want to get me started on it all really, you probably wouldn't believe the freedom we had as kids anyway, coincidentally there was a lot less people trying to kill us back then too.
 
Perhaps that's why things have changed then, lot of stuff kicked off in the 90s, so is it a surprise security would have increased in turn?

But what security are we on about? The Snoopers Charter has been widely condemned by the younger generation, so clearly not rolling over completely... Thing is, as you say, there's seemingly more people trying to kill us (IRA in the 90s probably kicked a lot of modern day security off), so comparison to the 'good old days' of whatever times down the mines without 'elf n safety' and what not are completely daft, as now is not then, the world is a vastly different place 20 years ago, let alone 30/40 of them...
 
Security at places like this will always be an issue. A quick bag search wont do anything thesedays when these idiots are strapping the explosives to their bodies, or even talk of them ingesting them. Unless you are going to put every single person through a body scanner, there is not even any point in worrying about security. If it happens - it happens.

The Eye as someone above said is a prime target, the number of times I have been in the pod at the top thinking if someone detonated something in there now, I would have no chance, or, on the cable cars by the O2, just one explosion could rip the cables and make the whole thing fall to the ground.

I dont even worry about it anymore to be honest.
 
The problem is any nutter can drive a car into people or strap explosives to themselves. We can't live our lives in fear or expect police and security services to prevent attacks like this with little or no intelligence.

Security searches don't bother me - I feel as though they are mainly carried out to reassure people. Was at Tussauds in London over the bank holiday and everyone was being searched.
 
last bag check I had (bank holiday weekend and not towers) they came across my radio. Queue the I am a radio amateur explanation. the security person looks at me like I have two heads, and calls for support as there is "a bloke that says he plays with radios has one in his bag."
A few minutes later a older security guy arrives, looks at the handheld radio. Asks if he can turn it on ( a bit weird to ask) and asks me my callsign. after a scroll though the memory, he looks at me give me his amateur callsign and starts chatting to me as the original security person finished my bag check.
Turns out the guys in security control knows he a radio amateur and he offered up to come over. Spent a great 15 mins chatting to him about radios.
 
He asked to turn it on to make sure it works, I was asked to demonstrate an item worked once, it's because some paranoid security expert in a basement devoid of daylight has conclude that a non working item is likely to mean it's had it's insides gutted and replaced with explosives.
 
I thought it was weird that he ask most just turn it on without asking.

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So, last time I [grudgingly] went to Thorpe was about a month ago, when [member's name redacted] turned up on my door with some free tickets... obviously it would be madness to say no...

We got to the (new to me) bag check area, and the poor (and I hate to say this, but let's be blunt) black lad in front of us got searched to the Nth degree. Unfortunately for him, he had a pre-rolled spliff in his baccy pouch, and was carted off for further interrogation...

Meanwhile, I, a middle-aged white guy, rocked up to security, slapped my metal cigarette case down and walked through the check point without so much as a second glance, despite the fact that even I could tell I stank of weed...

... Profiling, much?

Let's be honest here, if you are going to "profile" people, the kind of peeps who turn up with a spliff in their pocket are NOT the kind who might blow themselves up. They are about as far apart as you can get!
 
LOL true, we didn't even do the bag search, walked right past it up to the turnstyles and scanned ourselfves in (to find our MAP's didn't work becasuse it was their last day and they'd been deactivated a day early), the bag search was between the kiosks and turnstyles then.

Granted this was after lunchtime so I assume the security assumed we were going back in after going out to the car, but that's a fairly big assumption to make (was about 6 weeks ago this).
 
The bag checking at towers has certainly increased this season, but it started to happen last year. I've still wondered on without my bag searched this season, but far less than previous years.

I also noticed yesterday that you won't find a bin anywhere near the park entrance or entrance monorail station! It's only when you get down towers street you find one.


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Following on from the attacks in London and security, one thing that stood out for me from watching the news was the sheer volume of morons who when the police were shouting at them to move back, clear the area, they just stand there, mobile phones out, in the way, trying to film everything.

Seriously - whats more important, getting a clip on YouTube and Twitter or your life. Well - actually, I think I know the answer to that for some people. Given the number of people in Alton Towers on any given day I can imagine this to be a huge problem should something kick off up there!
 
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