The teen-aged Regal ticket taker will now ask for your ticket and a look into your purse or fanny pack, hoping that they do not find a gun. With the new controversial policy in place, the Regal Cinema Group hopes to make customers, as well as the staff, feel safer after the shooting last month in Louisiana. As with many policies, they mean well, but the unintended consequences should be weighed in the balance.
The policy states:
“Security issues have become a daily part of our lives in America. Regal Entertainment Group wants our customers and staff to feel comfortable and safe when visiting or working in our theatres.
To ensure the safety of our guests and employees, backpacks and bags of any kind are subject to inspection prior to admission. We acknowledge that this procedure can cause some inconvenience and that it is not without flaws, but hope these are minor in comparison to increased safety.”
Customers have tweeted their legitimate concerns as well, ranging from “how will a teen take down a person bent on murder” to confiscation of peach rings found in one’s bag.
Security experts, such as Ken Trump, a specialist in school safety told Fast Company:
“The ultimate question here, whether you’re talking about schools, movie theaters, theme parks, or other facilities, is, are these backpack checks a facade, an illusion of security, or are you really doing something to have a meaningful, thorough, enhanced security check? The issue isn’t, are you doing these checks? The issue is: Who’s doing them, and how? And what are you going to do if you find something?”
An illusion of safety only gives people a false sense of security and therefore they become less vigilant to self observe anything or anyone who seems suspicious. There are many other valid reasons that this is bad policy. Check out the video here.
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Photo: Westchester Commons
Great!
Whatever it takes.
Let me guess no guns allowed, because criminals listen to laws.