Oct. 28--Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday defended a Chicago Transit Authority plan to randomly screen baggage for explosives at some train stations, saying the checks make sense out of an "abundance of caution."
"The world is different," Emanuel said when asked to justify the checks that start Nov. 3. "We need to be constantly updating our safety and security."
The mayor said the bag checks, which civil liberties advocates have criticized, will respect riders' privacy and will not lead to profiling of certain types of people.
"I think with the abundance of caution, and done appropriately, (searches) are the right thing to do to both provide people the assurance of security, as well as doing it with a sensitivity to their own privacy," he said at an unrelated news conference.
The testing will be done by two "mobile explosives screening teams" of officers working at any one time at different stations, with most of the checkpoints set up at downtown stations, according to Chicago police officials.
Officers will ask passengers at random to submit to a swab screening of the outside of their bags, according to officials. A passenger who declines to participate will be denied entry and could be arrested under the officer's discretion if he or she still tried to access the rail system, officials said.
Emanuel said the baggage screening program will be paid for with a federal grant.
