Low-key security policy worked at concert

I refer to the letter complaining about the lack of security at Robbie Williams' concert last month (Sunday Morning Post, November 11).

I work for a security company. To search one person, and to do it properly, even without going through any bags they may be carrying, takes three to four minutes. If 100 extra staff had been employed to do the search, it would have taken more than five hours to search all the people entering the venue.

Only the police have the right to search members of the public. A security officer cannot do so unless an individual gives his consent to a search.

Plainclothes police officers were on duty at the event and were at the venue during the day to review security measures with local security companies and venue staff. Three different security companies worked in conjunction with one another at the event, and the evening went off without a hitch.

I don't think Robbie Williams is high on the hit list of any terrorist organisations, and with the large, densely-packed population in Hong Kong there are any number of locations where thousands of people are in attendance at any one time. Should we be searching everyone going into the MTR, to the race meetings at Happy Valley, or perhaps even shoppers in Mongkok or Causeway Bay at the weekend? When we start doing that then the terrorists have already won.

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