New York, USA - Five city subway riders and a civil liberties group sued the city yesterday to stop random police inspections of bags in subways, calling the searches ineffective, unconstitutional and a publicity stunt that does not enhance safety. "It's a needle-in-the-haystack approach to law enforcement," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit in US District Court in Manhattan. She and other members of the group, who spoke at a news conference to announce the lawsuit, said they want police to stop terrorists and improve safety, but not with useless measures designed to give subway riders a false sense of security. Christopher Dunn, the New York Civil Liberties Union's associate legal director, said the policy announced July 21 was akin to a random search of people's bags and packages on public streets and a violation of a fundamental civil right. Meanwhile, details from the July 7 London bombings seem to have been made public without British approval. Police spokesman Paul Browne claimed after the briefing that the police department had clearance from British authorities to present the information, but he said yesterday he had been "mistaken" and the department had not received approval. However, Browne said "all the information in the briefing was from open and unclassified sources". The briefing - given by the New York Police Department to city business leaders - was based partly on information obtained by NYPD detectives who were dispatched to London to monitor the investigation and was part of a programme designed to encourage more vigilance by private security at large hotels, financial firms, storage facilities and other companies. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com