Amtrak realizes the railfan community can help provide security where it can't. Ironic?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Amtrak-taps-into-rail-fan-apf-2428091003.html?x=0&.v=1
I'm no railfan myself, but that does seem pretty neat. I would like to see how that would work out if WMATA tried that.
WMATA most definitely should give it a spin, since we know the system as well as or better than many of the employees, and we do it because we think this train thing is fun, not just because it's a way to put food on one's family. I know just about every inch of the public areas of a number of Metro stations, and know what's unusual on sight. And I most definitely have called in unattended objects in the past, plus there's the time that my extensive knowledge of the system helped someone locate their child (http://www.schuminweb.com/schumin-web/journal/permalink.php?id=584). So, yeah, I'd appreciate some official recognition. After all, I know for a fact that WMATA knows *of* me.