After Friday's botched terrorist attack, the TSA and Homeland Security are imposing additional security measures on flights and at airports in an effort to stop future attacks. Based upon what I've read thus far, these new measures add little or no new security and simply make flying a less convenient mode of travel. Let's take them one at a time:
1. Clearing one's lap and remaining seated for an hour before landing. If I'm Ahmed the Evil and my plan is to destroy an airplane, why wouldn't I go and assemble my nefarious device an our and ten minutes out? This doesn't solve anything. And what if I'm just a dad traveling with my small kids and one of them needs to pee? Are they going to make the kids wait until we land? If I were in that situation I'd be tempted to have my kids pee right on the floor in protest.
2. Additional baggage screening devices at the gate: This says two things to me. They know that the TSA screeners are inept stooges and let dangerous devices through all of the time AND there are potentially lethal items sold at the stores inside of the security checkpoints. Adding an additional layer of stoogery at the gate doesn't make the plane any more safe, it simply inconveniences travelers and makes for a less enjoyable travel experience.
3. Allowing only one carry on item: If the screening stooges are going to miss my shank they're going to miss it whether I'm carrying one item or two on board the aircraft. Case in point: until my recent trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving, I had flown cross country at least a half dozen times with a metal multi-tool in the side pocket of my carry on backpack. I had forgotten that I had put it there and found it while I was rearranging the items that I was packing for that trip. This item had gone through the screener every time and was never even questioned. The item itself contains two knife blades, pliers, a screwdriver, a bottle opener, a corkscrew, and several other sharp or pointy utility tools. I would have had no problem if they had confiscated it but they never even acknowledged its presence.
4. Adding undercover TSA personnel at airports: If I'm going to assemble a bomb I'm going to do it in a restroom stall, are they going to follow me in there? Likewise, how many of the TSA personnel speak Arabic, Farsi, or Urdu? If I'm Ahmed the Evil, chances are I speak one or more of these languages.
5. How motivated is Justin the 19 year old, minimum wage earning TSA officer in the first place? Does he really connect his job to the dangers he is supposed to be preventing or is he there just to punch the clock?
Here's what I would do if I were in charge of airport/airline/flight security:
1. Reconsider the entire TSA operating philosophy. You hire no B.S. professionals run the security checkpoints and compensate them accordingly. A half-dozen well trained studs making 75K a year will keep passengers a lot safer than 20 screw offs making 25k a year each.
2. Forget about the civil libertarians and profile passengers. 88 year old Matilda Crabblewhite from West Lafayette, Indiana is much less likely to detonate a bomb on your plane than 23 year old Mahmoud Al-Jibri from Gaza City. This isn't about fairness or equity, it's about risk management. Manage the damn risk and tell the whiners to STFU.
3. Learn from the best. TSA needs to bring trainers in from El Al and from the Israeli army to teach the screeners and flight crews what to look for in passenger behavior. Which common things may indicate a hightened risk profile?
4. Bring in the dogs. Each checkpoint should have a K-9 on duty 24-7. Some people are more intimidated by dogs than they are other humans so a deterrent factor is built-in simply by having them there. They are also more effective at finding contraband than most humans are. Let's put our most effective resources to work.
5. Create meaningful career paths from the military to the civilian security sectors. By hiring personnel that are known to be trustworthy performers you enhance your workforce from the moment a person is hired.
With just a few changes, new efficiencies can be reached and security can be enhanced rather than simply added-to.
Great blog and great post. I guess the terrorists are winning bit by bit.
Posted by: Todd Daniel | December 27, 2009 at 05:50 PM