The NYT published an interesting article on the TSA today. After traveling back to Hawaii on tmas eve, I was pretty sensitive to the work that the TSA does and the time it takes to do it.
Let me first say metal detectors are a great idea. It’s good to know people aren’t carrying guns on a pressurized airplane, and it’s good to know that any large bombs will probably not make it through TSA screening. It’s the other stuff that is utterly ridiculous, time consuming and ultimately costly for both flyers and the TSA itself.
First of all the shoe thing. Sure, there was a shoe bomber that got caught. But does that mean we should separately look at everyone’s shoes? No.
First of all, large amounts of metal are not making it through the security checkpoint if they’re in your shoe, on your waist or in your pockets. So, the only thing you can really sneak in your shoes are some sort of plastic explosive. The TSA’s answer to this is making everyone take off their shoes. But since the same plastic explosive that will fit in your shoe can also be, say, strapped to your stomach, the shoe xraying isn’t really stopping anything…it’s just making any potential terrorists change the place they store their explosives.
Next, the thing with toiletries and the ziplock bag. Again, there was actually a potential threat that involved taking liquid explosives on a plane. The TSA’s solution? Make you put your liquids in 3 oz bottles contained in a clear zip lock bag.
Note, the TSA specifies that these liquids must be non-flammable…but do they really check? No. At most they pull the zip lock bag out of your check in…hold it up in the air like they’re evaluating the clarity of a diamond, and then stuff it back in your bag.
Is this really an effective security measure? At most it will make terrorists put their nitroglycerin in 3oz containers before boarding…previously they could just roll drums of the stuff on board. I mean, unless you actually check what is in the little bottles what does it matter how much you can take on board. And again, since liquids contain no metal, if you really wanted to sneak a lot of liquid on board you could just put it in some sort of a camelbak contraption.
The result, I think, is that we’re not really that much safer. I mean, if anything the TSA’s security measures have been reactive…and the holes they leave open are exactly what terrorists will target. In the meantime, flyers are subject to long lines.
And to be clear, I don’t mind waiting in line for the benefit of safety. But the point is I don’t think the TSA’s measures are actually making us any safer. Things like the zip lock bags and shoe removal are ridiculous and ineffective stop-gap measures that take the place of a more comprehensive security policy.
And flyers know this. And they give TSA screeners attitude, which makes the TSA screeners upset so they give other flyers a hard time. The whole process is miserable which again would be OK if it was effective.
My suggestion? Keep the metal detectors and add those wind blowing machines that can detect explosives. Both of those only take a few seconds to walk through.
And instead of having extra TSA screeners looking at your zip lock bags and telling you to take off your shoes, put those people on the xray machine so the stuff in bags actually gets accurately screened. I don’t mean to be a know-it-all, but doesn’t that make more sense?
Powered by FireStats