Recently, Norfolk Southern announced that they will be joining the BNSF in a similar program to Citizen’s for Rail Security (CRS). The NS program is called “Protect the Line (PTL).”

I joined with just a simple address, zip code and e-mail. We have always insisted that programs like this would be a benefit to the trained terrorist or a normal criminal. All you have to do is join and if you are caught doing some intelligence collection, you pull out your “card” and say I’m with CRS or PTL. A local law enforcement officer may just accept that and move on. I decided to see how effective a “see something say something™” campaign is and initial research revealed that there is not much documentation of the effectiveness of these programs. One current article indicated that these programs are not at all effective and may cost more than they are worth. One other study on the West Coast indicated that these campaigns do not have any method in place to actually measure effectiveness. However, one NY Times article may put these to rest as they cite the NY Time Square bomber and one other incident where a member of the public called police on something out of the ordinary. So, from our perspective we believe in having extra eyes and ears out there but have these volunteers go through at least a basic background check, have law enforcement sponsorship and most importantly some basic training to know what is normal and not normal on the rails and how to correctly report and respond.