Security lacks as Obama delivers

New President Barack Obama may have captured the crowd at his inauguration Tuesday, but security at the event did not.

Crowd members broke through a number of barriers to rush the Capitol building before security could do anything about it. In addition, many audience members in the furthest ticket area from the Capitol said they felt the event security was lacking.

“It seemed like they (security officials) barely checked us,” D.C. native Sheronda Robertson said. “I showed him my ticket and opened my coat and that was it.”

The security force asked all ticket holders to open their coats for a brief overview. However, tickets weren’t examined thoroughly at the gate, and audience members were only checked once. They were not asked to empty their pockets.

“I only got screened once,” Emily Speicher, from Scranton, Penn., said. “They didn’t even ask for my ticket.”

Members of the crowd said they also expected to be screened carefully, but were not.

“I thought there would be metal detectors but there weren’t,” Speicher said.

Still, most spectators said they thought security could have been better.

“They were not very organized not for something like this,” Robertson said. “Security could’ve definitely been tighter.”

At the conclusion of the inauguration, viewers found there were fewer exits than expected. When audience members tried to exit on Pennsylvania Avenue, they were re-directed toward the Capitol, which caused problems with crowd control.

“We had no idea where to go,” said Rachel Pollock from Minneapolis. “There wasn’t really anybody there to help us.”

In the future, spectators said they thought better communication was necessary, including informational signs at each entrance and possibly scheduled arrival times for ticket holders.

“You’ve got to keep everybody informed, especially people who aren’t from here,” Robertson said. “It’s important that you let people from out of town know the exact information we’re getting here in D.C.”