Fly, Be Free for the Holidays... Or Not
For those traveling over the holidays, check out this amusing comic at The Moderate Voice from The Hartford Courant. I still don't understand why we had to pour out one ounce of water from my daughter's sippy cup the last time we were going through a security line. (Of course the time before that, they let us through with a lot more... so random.)
posted by Sarah Granger @ 9:31 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
While I applaud the individuals in the TSA for really thinking they make a difference, the entire thing is just a joke. As a frequent flyer, I am met with a different procedure at every airport (always met with a snide, "The FAA rules state this is what is to be done" Really? Then why did 5 other airports not do it that way - maybe this is on purpose to confuse would-be troublemakers, I don't know. But I digress...)
In summary, I think the TSA policies and procedures are there to make people who rarely fly anyway believe they are safe. The screeners going through cups and taking off people's shoes make for good video clips on the 6 pm news. It's a joke. I don't feel any safer and I fly all the time. And all it does it make traveling inefficient and frustrating.
I'm all for inconvenience and delays if I felt like it actually did some good. But when I hear about Grandmas getting frisked, or your baby's sippy cup being examined with a fine-toothed comb, I look around and feel like the inmates are running the asylum. Does no one else seem to think these procedures are useless? The only people who seem to think these policies actually do any good are the people too scared to fly anyway.
Let's take a closer look at out-of-sight baggage handling, or tarmac access instead, shall we? If handlers can steal camcorders, what else can people be doing back there? And what the heck is anyone doing about the seaports, while a wheelchair-bound passenger gets scanned 9 times on a flight to Cedar Rapids? Sigh.....
There is security in the randomness because then individuals or groups who want to plan attacks can't plan as easily. But there is always a weak human element as well (not that I'm a big fan of biometrics either - most can be hacked easily). Combating social engineering is I think a big concern in terms of airport security. (See my past articles in Security Focus for more detail on what that means.)
Anyway the reality at this point is that the next major attack will most likely not happen anywhere related to air travel but you're right - a big part of TSA's job is in making people feel more secure. Remember that scene in "Dave" where he questions why there's a line in the federal budget for an ad campaign for people to feel better about the cars they already own? (Great movie.) It's kind-of like that.
But still on occasion they do catch people who are trying to carry scary items on planes so it's not all bad. I just try to be as nice to TSA airport security employees as possible - they don't make the policies and they have a hard job.
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