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MLB's new security measures are 'laughable' says expert

Big League Stew
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)

Every ballpark across Major League Baseball introduced mandatory metal detector screening over the last week in an effort to increase security inside the stadium.

The roll-out for the heightened screening process hasn't been perfect, as many fans at Coors Field missed the first pitch of the Rockies' home opener Friday because they were stuck in line waiting to be cleared for entrance into the park. At least the people attending games will be safer though, right?

Maybe not. American security expert Bruce Schneier writes in the Washington Post that MLB's changes are not only meaningless, but also misguided. Schneier, an author and the CTO at Resilient Systems, writes:

Touted as a counterterrorism measure, they’re nothing of the sort. They’re pure security theater: They look good without doing anything to make us safer. We’re stuck with them because of a combination of buck passing, CYA thinking and fear.

As a security measure, the new devices are laughable. The ballpark metal detectors are much more lax than the ones at an airport checkpoint. They aren’t very sensitive — people with phones and keys in their pockets aresailing through — and there are no X-ray machines. Bags get the same cursory search they’ve gotten for years. And fans wanting to avoid the detectors can opt for a “light pat-down search” instead.

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It's certainly an interesting opinion coming from someone who is eminently qualified to speak out on the matter and add context to what is a much larger discussion than simply applying advanced security at professional baseball games.

And while it appears the metal detectors are here to stay, the short-term hope is that getting fans through the gates as efficiently as possible gets easier as the season goes on.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter.