Reply #20: many false alarms

[Gimel]

This is true. I've seen several times that an entire street is cordoned off, or a bus suddenly turns around and makes a bee-line for the station (the driver having noticed an unattended package). A woman in the building next door called the police because she thought she saw something suspicious in the dumpster. Children are trained to be watchful of unattended packages, and to report anything suspicious.

But a report that is followed up can lead to a bomb being detected as well. That's why 90% of the reports are taken seriously. Several major incidents were prevented by alert citizens in tha past few months.