Travelers, what do you think of TSA randomness?

[Nuc]

How many of you have been needlessly searched or in other ways inconvenienced by the TSA?

I travel for a living and I have been in and out of the country hundreds of times. Nevertheless this long and flawless record of safe travel affords me no leeway regarding searches and having my luggage damaged by the klutzes at TSA.

I've seen nuns and farmers randomly searched by TSA. Memo to TSA, an eighty year old woman in a habit is probably a nun. An eighty year old man with Red Wing boots, a John Deere hat, and Oshkosh B'gosh bibs is probably a farmer. There is no need to search these people. Search the man who is talking to his fist. When I asked TSA why they didn't search the man who was talking to his fist they told me random searches were decided by number, and that they are not allowed to use their own judgement.

We know what group of people the terrorist come from (mainly) but TSA does not profile those people. Nor do they use positive profiling to let frequent, responsible travelers like me through without a hassle. If we really have a good intelligence network, why are we not using it to clear people who pose no threat so that resources can be directed to searching those who do?

Anybody else think the way the TSA is being run is idiotic, arbitrary, unfocussed and wasteful?

 

[dmp]

Spot on.

Exactly spot-on

 

[5stringJeff]

I think we found something to agree on nucular!

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Anybody else think the way the TSA is being run is idiotic, arbitrary, unfocussed and wasteful?

Well of course it is! It's a branch of the federal government. Let airlines provide their own security measures. They have a far greater incentive than some unelected bureaucrat does. Crashed/hijacked planes = lost money and lost customers. Unless you're the feds, in which case you get rewarded with bigger budgets the next year. A truly free airline probably would have chosen to issue guns to it's pilots a long time ago, which would have prevented 9/11 entirely.

 

[speederdoc]

I agree that there is a place for profiling, but as the improved noninvasive scanning techniques become more widespread, there will be really not much benefit in a physical search. The technology that is already available is amazing; it's just so good that political correctness (and cost) is delaying its implementation. You can see bewbies and such, but also guns, chemicals, and plastic explosives. They are trying to remove the body from the image, and just show the "stuff."

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,54598,00.html

I don't want anyone passed through less security just because they have flown a lot, btw. That would soon become a weakness in our defense. You fly a lot, expect to get searched a lot. Suck it up.

 

[William Joyce]

I agree. Nothing makes me feel safer than seeing a cornrowed ex-con in a TSA jacket feeling up my Swedish grandmother while a 20-something guy in an Osama T-shirt whistles his way on to the plane. But we wouldn't want to offend anyone, now would we?

 

[The ClayTaurus]

I agree. Nothing makes me feel safer than seeing a cornrowed ex-con in a TSA jacket feeling up my Swedish grandmother while a 20-something guy in an Osama T-shirt whistles his way on to the plane. But we wouldn't want to offend anyone, now would we?

Feeling a bit archaeological today, are we?

 

[Abbey Normal]

The TSA is just trying to avoid ACLU-type lawsuits claiming profiling and discrimination. If you have a beef, it should be with those who make "offending" certain groups a more serious issue than security or efficiency. They are crippling a lot of organizations.

 

[Just a guy]

When I asked TSA why they didn't search the man who was talking to his fist they told me random searches were decided by number, and that they are not allowed to use their own judgement.

This is so cool! Some very smart person has had a finger in here somewhere. By adding totally random searches and never deviate from them you actually achieve something:

1. There will not be any foolproof or even good enough disguise available.
2. This fairly cheap countermeasure make other ways more intresting for the enemy, ways that can be sought out and predicted.

So from being the passive one, always wondering where the next terrorist will show up, this little stunt has won some initiative back. ALso, they guy talking to his fist has probably already been monitored a while before you spot him.

Very cool and smart move this!