Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate - er, better airport-security checkpoints not that far off

USA Today: Faster, better airport-security checkpoints not that far off (http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2012-06-19/Faster-better-airport-security-checkpoints-not-that-far-off/55693916/1)

I know that there is tons of technology out there that could make clearing airport security easier. However, given developments over the past few years, can it really get better??? And, of course, at what cost to fees that get tacked on the fares...so in the end passengers end up paying?


DALLAS – At a terminal being renovated here at Love Field, contractors are installing 500 high-definition security cameras sharp enough to read an auto license plate or a logo on a shirt.

The cameras, capable of tracking passengers from the parking garage to gates to the tarmac, are a key first step in creating what the airline industry would like to see at airports worldwide: a security apparatus that would scrutinize passengers more thoroughly, but less intrusively, and in faster fashion than now.

It's part of what the International Air Transport Association, or IATA, which represents airlines globally, calls "the checkpoint of the future."

The goal is for fliers to move almost non-stop through security from the curb to the gate, in contrast to repeated security stops and logjams at checkpoints.

Screening could also speed up. Peter Kant, executive vice president of Rapiscan, which makes full-body scanners, says several companies are developing machines fashioned like tunnels that allow travelers to walk through.

Rapiscan has a prototype that would let people keep moving, although it can't scan carry-on bags at the same time yet, Kant says.

"It's out of the lab, but it's still a prototype. It allows people to walk through without stopping or posing," Kant says. "You wouldn't have to be there doing all this unpacking and repacking."

Just what I want to walk through - a Rapiscan tunnel. :rolleyes:

"Opt out", thank you :td: .

"Opt out", thank you :td: .

+1

Cameras with the ability to read license plates?

Like the ones many airports have at the entrance and exit booths? Drive up to the gate at some lots, the display already shows how long you were there and how much to pay by using your plate information.

How much you want to bet their system will cost a billion times as much and be only half as good.

It's like they watched a bunch of reruns on the sifi channel (or whatever they are calling it this week) and started writing purchase orders.

"Opt out", thank you :td: .

+another

Rumor has it that the new ticket fee will be $19.84

Mike

Constant video surveillance? Security tunnels--made by Rapiscam, no less--that theoretically have WTMD and BKSX/MMW stages (I suspect Rapiscam will continue to give anti-BKSX advocates the finger), most likely not with ATD due to the intricacies of scanning a moving target, and iris/fingerprint scanning?

I'm sorry, the day someone tells me that I need to submit to a retinal scan so I can get on an airplane is the day I quit flying. I love how the whole security screening is designed to completely violate your Fourth Amendment rights in every way, yet make it feel less intrusive because you'll never see the cameras and you don't stop moving in the "tunnel".

If this becomes reality, it's highly unlikely that an opt-out would be offered. Even if it was, I'm sure that whatever agency is overseeing checkpoints by then would say that since the tunnel is "as effective as a strip search," the only acceptable opt-out would be a literal strip search.

Meanwhile, the terrorists targeting our highways and metropolitan areas with dirty bombs--and those who've really got the game figured out and are targeting the power grid and the internet itself--are laughing about how we're trying so hard to keep them off of airplanes, which they could care less about at this point.

Constant video surveillance? Security tunnels--made by Rapiscam,

Meanwhile, the terrorists targeting our highways and metropolitan areas with dirty bombs--and those who've really got the game figured out and are targeting the power grid and the internet itself--are laughing about how we're trying so hard to keep them off of airplanes, which they could NOT care less about at this point.

The UK already has all this. Cameras everywhere.

Rumor has it that the new ticket fee will be $19.84


To make it a more "fun" experience, why not hire Disney to turn it into a cute little theme ride, with little guns to fire at terrorist holograms as you're being X-rayed, e.g. TSA Airport Follies?

To make it a more "fun" experience, why not hire Disney to turn it into a cute little theme ride, with little guns to fire at terrorist holograms as you're being X-rayed, e.g. TSA Airport Follies?

Ya know all those police movies where the police officers are in training and they try to shoot the bad guys cutouts and avoid grannies and moms with kids?? In the TSA version, it works the other way: you get extra points for assaulting the last two. Hit enough of them and you move into the Strip Search Bonus Round.

I see an iPad App written all over this.

Mike

Warning! A contrary opinion follows!

An ETD portal is not a bad idea.

The rest of the stuff scary or just plain wrong.

...
Meanwhile, the terrorists targeting our highways and metropolitan areas with dirty bombs--and those who've really got the game figured out and are targeting the power grid and the internet itself--are laughing about how we're trying so hard to keep them off of airplanes, which they could care less about at this point.

if you haven't noticed, there are no terrorists.

if you haven't noticed, there are no terrorists.

Clearly, your sarcasm detector needs to be taken in for a tune-up.

Clearly, your sarcasm detector needs to be taken in for a tune-up.

It's Rapidscan. Do they offer free scheduled maintenance?

a security apparatus that would scrutinize passengers more thoroughly, but less intrusively,

Huh???

"War is peace."

What is the nature of the scanning performed while you walk? I've seen purported demos (maybe just proposal videos) of the latest MMW devices that work even when the subject is moving. As I recall, the family jewels were quite distinct and clear even with the subject dancing around.

There cannot be a rendering of the person's body. If they do that, they've wasted their money.

It's Rapidscan. Do they offer free scheduled maintenance?
Maintenance? What's that? Hey, by the way, your unit's broken. I'll give you a 10% discount on a new one...how's $195,000 sound?

What is the nature of the scanning performed while you walk? I've seen purported demos (maybe just proposal videos) of the latest MMW devices that work even when the subject is moving. As I recall, the family jewels were quite distinct and clear even with the subject dancing around.

There cannot be a rendering of the person's body. If they do that, they've wasted their money.
I'd guess MMW, as I suspect BKSX technology, despite the TSA patting Chertoff's back by saying it's still an option, would be impossible to get funding for going forward.

An earlier poster suggested they'd be ok with an ETD tunnel...I wouldn't. With the amount of false-positives ETD gets, there would be a line of people waiting to go into the private room for a resolution rapedown.

Maintenance? What's that? Hey, by the way, your unit's broken. I'll give you a 10% discount on a new one...how's $195,000 sound?


I'd guess MMW, as I suspect BKSX technology, despite the TSA patting Chertoff's back by saying it's still an option, would be impossible to get funding for going forward.

An earlier poster suggested they'd be ok with an ETD tunnel...I wouldn't. With the amount of false-positives ETD gets, there would be a line of people waiting to go into the private room for a resolution rapedown.

Agree completely. We've had nothing but incompetence and faulty machines from these clowns for eleven years and all of a sudden magically they build a tunnel with machines that work and are not invasive. We know d*mn well by now that this will be nothing but a tunnel of clusterf*ks and we'll be scr*wed worse than we have ever been.

a security apparatus that would scrutinize passengers more thoroughly, but less intrusively,

Huh???

"War is peace."

Depends on your definition of "intrusive". Recall, the ideal being promoted is a system in which a passenger can walk from the parking lot directly to their gate without having to stop for a screening procedure. In that context, I read "intrusive" in terms of the massive inconvenience (to put it politely) of having to undress at a checkpoint, and unpack half of one's carry-on items for separate inspection.

Of course, there are other definitions of "intrusive", like "letting total strangers observe my bits-and-pieces".

Maybe the word "intrusive" isn't the most accurate, but I wouldn't quite go so far as to call it Orwellian. But your mileage may vary.

Maybe the word "intrusive" isn't the most accurate, but I wouldn't quite go so far as to call it Orwellian.
Wow. Just wow.

TSA's been looking to break into the "motion pictures" industry for a while.

http://epic.org/2011/08/dhs-refuses-to-disclose-detail.html

"In November 2010, EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the agency regarding the deployment of body scanners in surface transit and street-roving vans."

Rumor has it that the new ticket fee will be $19.84

Mike

I wish I could green or upvote this.

Why isn't post voting part of FT?

The article linked to by OP is nothing other than a shill piece trying to drum up support for these money wasters for the interested parties involved. Look at this stupid bit of justification in that article:

The push for faster security is prompted by necessity.
The Federal Aviation Administration projects the number of passengers flying inside the USA will nearly double in the next 20 years, to 1.2 billion. Security has slowed since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Before then, about 350 people passed through checkpoints each hour, the IATA says. A November survey at 142 airports found processing times fell to 149 an hour, with the worst at 60, Dunlap says.

Based on WHAT? Passenger numbers are falling off a cliff and have been going down for years due to TSA sexual abuse of passengers and their general hostility, and also to economic factors. Thare are far fewer flights and airlines now. Even if the TSA abuse is curtailed, what economic revival on the horizon is expected? Every creditable financial source is expecting economically tough times to get worse before they get better, and they have no time frame for ANY uptick in conditions. WHO are all these new passengers flooding in to be groped and strip searched inside TSA's new tunnels of love?

The article, and the claimed need for faster processing times are fatuous and dishonest. What is needed is the elimination of the TSA and a return to respecting passenger's basic human and civil rights.

The article linked to by OP is nothing other than a shill piece trying to drum up support for these money wasters for the interested parties involved.The projected increase in pax came from the FAA, not the TSA.

If it's accurate (and you'd have to ask the FAA how they came up with it), then the rest of the article is valid.

The projected increase in pax came from the FAA, not the TSA.

If it's accurate (and you'd have to ask the FAA how they came up with it), then the rest of the article is valid.

I don't care which bunch of idiots came up with that number. That's about seven years out. No economic forecasts for the next five years are showing a huge uptick in the economy. None. Nobody, including our savants at the Fed, has any idea on what will get our economy moving again, nor when. The FAA has ZERO competence in such matters. The numbers of both airlines and flights continue to shrink across the US market. That's the fact.

The rest of the article is certainly not valid. It's a transparent cover for government expenditure in yet another area where it's not needed.

"Opt out", thank you :td: .

Add me to this list.

Just more ways for big brother to record your every move in the world. Just disgusting.

The article linked to by OP is nothing other than a shill piece trying to drum up support for these money wasters for the interested parties involved. Look at this stupid bit of justification in that article:



Based on WHAT? Passenger numbers are falling off a cliff and have been going down for years due to TSA sexual abuse of passengers and their general hostility, and also to economic factors. Thare are far fewer flights and airlines now. Even if the TSA abuse is curtailed, what economic revival on the horizon is expected? Every creditable financial source is expecting economically tough times to get worse before they get better, and they have no time frame for ANY uptick in conditions. WHO are all these new passengers flooding in to be groped and strip searched inside TSA's new tunnels of love?

The article, and the claimed need for faster processing times are fatuous and dishonest. What is needed is the elimination of the TSA and a return to respecting passenger's basic human and civil rights.

Won't happen.

A) We would need tremendous infrastructure improvement. Not the kind that can be built in a few years. Forget the amount of airport space we would need; ATC alone would kill doubling ASMs.

B) Doubling in 20 years would be an approximate growth of 3.5% per year for 20 years. Again, virtually impossible, if for no other reason than Wall Street analysts will go nucking futs with that kind of capacity growth.

Look, you can make statistics say anything. 73% of all people know that.

Mike