The security balancing act

Airports are currently on high alert

Whenever Roy Sage leaves his Tel Aviv home to go to the supermarket or for a meal in a restaurant, he factors in extra time to be searched.

At the door of most stores and other premises he will be asked to hand over any bags to be inspected, and will have a metal detector passed over his body.

The Israeli lawyer says a strong police presence on the city's streets is the norm.

I'd rather be searched than dead Roy Sage, Tel Aviv resident

The same applies to random security searches both at bus stops and on buses in a city where suicide bombers often choose this mode of transport as a preferred medium.

"I'd rather be searched than dead," says Mr Sage, 39, who e-mailed the BBC News website to express his sympathy after Thursday's terror attacks in London.

He adds that whenever he comes on holiday to the UK - where he is currently - he is struck by the lack of such security here.

Scan and search?

In the wake of the bombings, security across the country has been noticeably stepped up. Airports and ports have been put on high alert in case those involved attempt to leave the country.

But will a constant state of increased security now become standard in British cities long term?

The attacks have stunned the UK, but will security change for ever?

Professor Chris Bellamy, director of the Security Studies Institute at Cranfield University, thinks not.

"Traditionally, what tends to happen is that security measures are increased after any incident but are reduced as the incident begins to slip from collective memory," he says.

"For example, after the shoe bomber was caught trying to blow up a plane with explosives in his shoes, airports went through a phase of telling people to take their shoes off."

But he points out that little can be done to increase security on most of the country's public transport systems, apart from maintaining an increased state of vigilance by both staff and passengers.

"Whereas specific events likely to attract terrorist attention may be subject to increased security measures, it's not practically feasible to scan and search millions of people travelling each day in the same way as airline passengers," says Prof Bellamy, who is also academic leader of Cranfield's Resilience Centre.

What we never want to do is let terrorists overtake places or events, or the British way of life Mark Harding, ShowSec International

But, he adds, technology which can scan people and baggage more effectively is under development and will continue to be developed.

"I'm sure it's not far off," he says, "but there are moral and civil liberty objections to such equipment".

This last factor is one security firms already have to bear in mind when deciding how heavy-handed - or not - to be when carrying out their duties.

Anger

Mark Harding is managing director of ShowSec International, which provides security for a wide range of events and venues including Hammersmith Apollo and Earls Court in London, and the football clubs Leeds United, Manchester City and York City.

He says a fine balance must be struck between responding to a potential threat, in coordination with police and other agencies, and deterring - or even frightening - the public.

The Tube has always been considered vulnerable to attacks

"It's not very aesthetically nice to see hundreds and hundreds of yellow or orange jackets when you're watching someone perform on stage.

"There is tremendous anger and emotion once something like this has happened, and there is a tendency to overreact.

"What we never want to do is let terrorists overtake places or events, or the British way of life."

Deterrent

Before sporting events such as football matches, for example, Mr Harding says it is normal practice for his security stewards to search under stands for both suspicious items and health and safety reasons.

Depending on individual clubs' policies, fans might be subjected to random searches according to the level of potential problems expected at a particular game.

But this is more as a deterrent than anything else - and while Mr Harding says searching at some events might be stepped up in immediate response to the attacks, he does not want to see a blanket hardline policy to security become the way of the future.

Transport for London, the umbrella group for the capital's public transport services, was only able to comment on immediate security plans following Thursday's attacks.

The public are our eyes and ears Transport for London spokesman

But a spokesman insisted there were "no plans" to introduce at some London Underground stations body scanners which can see through clothing, as reported by the Times newspaper.

One hundred extra "transport operational command unit officers" - Metropolitan Police officers who patrol London's bus and road network - had been put on duty, as well as 80 additional TFL staff and 120 traffic wardens to help keep traffic flowing.

Extra search teams, which respond to bomb scares by swiftly clearing Tube stations, were also on standby.

"Bus drivers are searching their buses every time they turn around," the spokesman said. "We do constant checks on all networks of both buses and Tubes anyway.

"The public are our eyes and ears - we are asking them to be extra vigilant."

Wartime bombings

As the country reels from the London bombings, many people find it hard to imagine the UK has ever felt so threatened.

Sniffer dogs were on duty at stations on Thursday

But Prof Bellamy points out that "for nearly 30 years the UK faced a major threat from the Provisional IRA", and adds that after the Good Friday Agreement dissident republican groups "remained and remain a threat".

He adds that the 11 September attacks on the US remains the biggest loss of British lives in a terror attack.

And he says: "It must also be remembered that London was the subject of bombing, partly with military intention and partly with terrorist aims, in 1940 to 1941 and occasionally thereafter.

"It was also the subject of attack by V1 cruise missiles and V2 ballistic missiles in 1944. Against that background, the events of 7 July do not seem so bad."

Mr Sage, for his part, does not want to see the heavy security he considers a "normal fact of life" in Tel Aviv to become the same in the UK.

"I don't want that to happen in any city. But if something like this [heavy security] becomes a fact of life, you either get used to it, or allow the terrorists to terrorise us - and then they're winning."