Also, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says airline passengers arriving from Ebola stricken countries, must now land in one of these five U.S. airports. They have enhanced Ebola screening in place.
from CNN Student News
I cannot figure it out what in place really means here.
Best Answer
To explain 'in place' in simple words is something which is ready and all set to be used.
For example
Suppose you have started a new company. You have bought a place, got it furnished and in the interiors done, computers installed and even pre-hired the employees to work for it. The only thing which is left to be done to get the business going is 'installing the software or the system' via which you will be conduting your business. Now you say -
Once you get the software installed on the computers in your company then you can say -
So 'in place' is used for the systems, methods or anything that gets the respective job started. In your example it is Enhanced Ebbola screening.
In your example (They have enhanced Ebola screening in place) the letter 'e' in enhanced should be written in capital.
Because of the letter 'e' is written in small it appears like it is a verb. But it is not a verb, it is an adjective.
So now the sentence would be --
They have Enhanced Ebola screening in place. (The Enhanced Ebbola screening is all ready to be used)
More examples of Enhanced -