judge11 - For interest, the reason given to us by our employer for crew searches goes approximately as follows.
A member of the Flight Crew may have been placed under duress (e.g. family threatened/hostage) and thereby forced to bring an item through security for use in-flight by a third party.
I make no comment whatsoever as to the validity of this reason: I am simply making you aware of the reason we are given in order that you may reach your own decision as to its' merits.