Bus Station Security
Bus hijackings in remote areas of Perú is apparently a thing. As near as I can tell, it happens once every couple of years.
A pretty standard M.O. is for a passenger, who is in league with the hijackers, to phone ahead to his partners when the bus nears a predetermined point. The gang blocks the road with large rocks or some other impassable obstruction. When the bus stops, they enter at gunpoint and steal all valuables on board.
All the Peruvian bus companies have taken some novel and effective measures in response.
As passengers go through security screening, they are openly video recorded. The camera is sitting on a tripod in plain sight so that everyone knows they are being recorded. Once everyone is on board, the camera is brought onto the bus and each passenger is recorded again sitting in their designated seat while someone from the bus company narrates the seat numbers into the video.
The recording is left behind at the terminal to be used as evidence in the event of a hijacking.
Some bus companies will also make each passenger give a fingerprint. These are placed on a map of the bus seating, with each fingerprint placed on the passenger’s assigned seat.
Passports or other official documents are always checked at the security screening and again at the bus door.
Security screening also consists of being wanded with a metal detector and all carry-on bags checked by hand.
The buses are also remotely tracked along their routes by GPS, though hijackings almost always occur in remote mountainous areas where GPS signals are erratic.
Naturally I don’t have photos of any of these security measures but they all seem simple, relatively low-cost and far more effective than some TSA measures like removing shoes and belts.
I have ridden thousands of miles and many many hours with half a dozen different bus companies in Perú and did not feel unsafe on any of them. Peruvian drivers, on the other hand… that’s a whole different story.
