Visiting a downtown Los Angeles high-rise recently, I was reminded of the extraordinary steps many such buildings have taken since 9/11 to provide security. At one Century City building, they are still looking under cars with mirrors before allowing parking lot entry. But I wonder – have such steps really made us safer? Or are we all just paying more as increased personnel costs are passed down?

About all the lobby level security does is make sure that visitors are on a list before they can get on an elevator. Usually a call will get you access if you arrive and find you are not on the list. Many businesses, of course, depend on visits from clients they never have met other than by phone or e-mail. So terrorists don’t use phones or the Internet to gain access on a pretense call or e-mail? Businesses certainly aren’t routinely screening potential clients for a threat assessment. And the 9/11 terrorists didn’t need anyone inside the buildings to blow them up anyway.

And what about the buildings that don’t have such security measures? My mid-rise in Hollywood does not. Am I less safe? I don’t feel like I am. I don’t think my landlord is taking a chance, and I am grateful I don’t have to pay for all those extra people that mostly seem to just make it more annoying for anyone to come see me.

Airport security

The Transportation Security Administration doesn’t make me feel any safer at airports, either. We know that plenty of people have tested TSA and found it wanting for preventing dangerous people and weapons from getting aboard a plane. And I tend to think that terrorists are smart enough to figure out a way to blow up a plane if they really want to. Given the high annoyance factor in airport travel these days, I will drive almost anywhere to avoid taking off my belt and shoes to get felt up by a TSA screener and not to worry whether I brought too much shaving cream with me.

In the end, perhaps what makes us safer is the fact that the bad guys have seen how miserable we all are now – and how much annoyance is costing us – and therefore know they already have won without having to blow up another plane.

So can we at least just admit that all this security is really just for looks, and do more winking and nodding to make it all easier and cheaper for ourselves?

Jeffrey C. Briggs is a lawyer in Hollywood.