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Greetings from Hyderabad, India. My company shipped me to India for 2 weeks to hang out with my development team. Or perhaps it was because I didn't have enough third-world hell-holes on my bucket list. Who knows.
I know many of us have complained repeatedly about how inept DHS is and how most of the measures they take are for show and don't really provide any true security but, after coming here, I think I will complain a bit less. Let me explain.
The hotel where I am staying and our office are in the Hi-tech city section of Hyderabad. Many foreign companies have development centers here. As a result, they take security very seriously (India style).
Driving into the hotel, there is a huge set of steel gates with a steel guard bar and tire traps. Upon approach to the hotel compound, all vehicles are stopped at a good standoff distance and a very courteous gentleman scans the underside of the car with a flashlight-equipped inspection mirror. Another man scans the body of the car with a portable scanner (he wouldn't tell me what technology it is but I'm glad I already had my kid just the same). They open the trunk or hatchback and visually inspect all interior areas of he car. Only after all of this is done is the bar lifted and the tire traps retracted hydraulically. The driver proceeds to the main entrance and you then have to have your bags scanned and walk through a metal detector to enter the actual hotel building. The same occurs entering our "office compound". They have routine foot patrols of the grounds and each floor of both buildings and at work if they can't see your badge they stop you to make you show it. Every day, same routine.
While this all sounds great, there is not a single person in the 78-man security staff at the hotel that is armed. The same applies to the over 100 (I couldn't get an actual number, just that there were "over 100") folks at our office. They all look like they are 100lbs soaking wet and don't exactly give off that "I'll stop the threat" vibe.
So what happens if they find something? It's not like they can actually stop someone. I guess they could just pile a bunch of people on top of the under-powered car and hope to slow it down or stall it and if they see something in the bag scan they could stop the belt but I'm not feeling the "security". I've seen dozens of police who are basically directing traffic and they aren't armed either. It's all very strange to me.
I know DHS sucks only to a slight degree less than this but the approach they are using in India is just silly.
BTW… The people here are incredibly gracious, everybody speaks English (thanks UK for colonizing it) and if you like travel I wouldn't try to dissuade you from coming here. It's just not my cup of tea.
Thanks for listening to my rant. I know it's long winded but what else am I going to do sitting in a hotel lobby in a third-world city on a weekend? Go "sight seeing"?
I know many of us have complained repeatedly about how inept DHS is and how most of the measures they take are for show and don't really provide any true security but, after coming here, I think I will complain a bit less. Let me explain.
The hotel where I am staying and our office are in the Hi-tech city section of Hyderabad. Many foreign companies have development centers here. As a result, they take security very seriously (India style).
Driving into the hotel, there is a huge set of steel gates with a steel guard bar and tire traps. Upon approach to the hotel compound, all vehicles are stopped at a good standoff distance and a very courteous gentleman scans the underside of the car with a flashlight-equipped inspection mirror. Another man scans the body of the car with a portable scanner (he wouldn't tell me what technology it is but I'm glad I already had my kid just the same). They open the trunk or hatchback and visually inspect all interior areas of he car. Only after all of this is done is the bar lifted and the tire traps retracted hydraulically. The driver proceeds to the main entrance and you then have to have your bags scanned and walk through a metal detector to enter the actual hotel building. The same occurs entering our "office compound". They have routine foot patrols of the grounds and each floor of both buildings and at work if they can't see your badge they stop you to make you show it. Every day, same routine.
While this all sounds great, there is not a single person in the 78-man security staff at the hotel that is armed. The same applies to the over 100 (I couldn't get an actual number, just that there were "over 100") folks at our office. They all look like they are 100lbs soaking wet and don't exactly give off that "I'll stop the threat" vibe.
So what happens if they find something? It's not like they can actually stop someone. I guess they could just pile a bunch of people on top of the under-powered car and hope to slow it down or stall it and if they see something in the bag scan they could stop the belt but I'm not feeling the "security". I've seen dozens of police who are basically directing traffic and they aren't armed either. It's all very strange to me.
I know DHS sucks only to a slight degree less than this but the approach they are using in India is just silly.
BTW… The people here are incredibly gracious, everybody speaks English (thanks UK for colonizing it) and if you like travel I wouldn't try to dissuade you from coming here. It's just not my cup of tea.
Thanks for listening to my rant. I know it's long winded but what else am I going to do sitting in a hotel lobby in a third-world city on a weekend? Go "sight seeing"?
