The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
Hailu T.
22 December 2007
opinion
There are many places in town where security has become an issue. Going into any office or building nowadays warrants a search of some sort to be performed before one is allowed to enter.
The way these so-called searches are done varies from place to place in the degree of professionalism and the manner in which they are done.
In many places, a good old pat-down is performed where the guard is feeling down the body from the armpits all the way down to the ankles. Most of the time these pat-downs border on the offensive as the guards roam their hands all over one's body fondling and grabbing body parts. Some are very harsh in the manner they do it that this leaves one feeling physically violated.
No one denies that the issue of security is a very important one and should not be taken lightly. Every means has to be taken to guarantee the safety of all that work in an office or a building. But the way it is done should be professional and non-invasive.
Most security checks are done by guards placed in front of gates or entrances. These individuals are hardly provided any training about performing searches. One would wonder what there is to learn about frisking someone. That's exactly what one guard told me when I protested his invasive search. His hands were going all over to places they shouldn't!
Some guards think a search should only concern the pockets and nothing more, while others think that every nook and cranny of the body should be searched. Some search those who only stop for them while anyone who walks in an authoritative manner is let go without any scrutiny. In some cases, you may notice foreigners being let through without a search.
Nowadays, in many places, guards are provided with electronic wands to perform searches. Sadly, in almost all cases, the guards don't have a notion of its proper use as they use it an extension of their hand and still use the other arm to search with. The idea as common sense would have it, is to avoid touching the customer's body and to run the wand over the body to detect forbidden items. Contrary to this, guards continue to grab people and ran their hands all over their body while constantly making the wand beep by pressing a button. The wand, which is supposed to go off on its own when it detects metal, is made to beep even when it is not near any pockets.
Another visible problem other than lack of training is consultation. In some places you would see guards using bare hands at main entrances and electronic wands inside buildings where they are hardly needed and vice versa.
A recent encounter at the newly-opened cinema hall inside Edna mall made me painfully aware of both the lack of training and consultation. At the main entrance guards, for both male and female customers are assigned and go at their job fiercely. While their enthusiasm is to be lauded, the way they go about it is completely wrong and invasive. Although equipped with electronic wands, they lay their hands on each customer while letting the wand beep constantly. To make it worse, instead of asking to see what's in customer's pocket, they just grab and fondle whatever is in there.
For me, what made one encounter ridiculous and funny was that I was wearing shorts without any pocket and throughout the search the metallic wand kept going off.
Then at entrances of the movie halls, where there is a sign which prohibits carrying of recording materials inside the halls, there is a guard posted who uses his bare hands to look for mentioned items. This guard in his determination not to let any recording materials to pass through frisks the customer in a manner that makes you want to run away. Logic would have it that guards looking for recording materials that are metallic be equipped with an electronic wand to make his job easier and the customer comfortable.
In times where security concerns are high, we are fortunate that our safety is relatively better kept than others in other countries. Many say that the security searches are more psychological and deter any notion of breach. While this very well may be, it should be that that is not the only effect they have on people. It should be that anyone who comes in a door and searched should be comfortable and not have their body parts unnecessarily grabbed and fondled.
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