British Transport Police want to change the Conditions of Carriage that form a contract between every rail passenger and the companies that carry them on their trains. If it happened, and the proposed new clauses were introduced, it would mean that every time you bought a train ticket you agreed to be searched by the police.
That doesn’t mean you will be searched – just that you could. If you don’t agree to be searched, you don’t agree to travel. Simple as that.
Passengers who buy a London train or tube ticket would automatically be giving their consent to be searched, under proposals now under consideration. [says The Guardian]
The trouble is that at the moment the police have to have a reasonable suspicion about you before they can search you or ask you to walk through a knife-detecting arch. After the proposed changes they could just ask everyone to submit to searching, regardless of how many people are in a queue in front of you or how many trains you’ll miss as they do so.
