skylane

TSA at IAD is "testing" an additional look at boarding passes right before passing through the x-ray and scanners (right after the ID check). What's the point of this additional check? Is the TSA afraid passengers are sneaking around the ID checks?

FliesWay2Much

From time to time, I've seen supervisory clerks right behind the ID checkers doing a second ID check 5' from the first checkers. A while back, when I asked one of them why he needed to look at the same BP less than 10 feet away from the previous check, he got quite annoyed with me.

SeriouslyLost

Completely inane, but better than Heathrow. Last time through there I had the BP & ID checked five times in the space of 20 feet. They get reeeeally snotty with you when you laugh at their stupid games.

halls120

They used to do it all the time a few years ago. They have probably reinstated it because they need to keep their staff busy.

jkhuggins

We've seen plenty of reports here of passengers who pass through the TDC station with the wrong ID, a boarding pass that doesn't match the ID, a boarding pass for the wrong day ... heck, we've seen people get through without showing any ID or boarding pass at all. I suspect that the second check is mostly to verify that the first check was performed correctly.

Whether or not that is a useful expenditure of funds is ... well, a matter of some debate. (Lemme get my popcorn ...)

dimramon

They probably couldn't get a shift at McDonalds that day, so they gave them something stupid to do.

FredAnderssen

Whether or not they manage to pass through the security checkpoint without proper ID really doesn't matter to me, as long as they don't get through with an explosive.

Have you ever seen pictures of assembly lines at Foxconn where they assemble iPhones and iPads or an assembly line at a car factory? These people have one job to do and they seem to manage to do it right. How hard could it be to check an ID at security and get it right without having a second or third check in place? Could you imagine Ford having three checkers for every nut and bolt being put into an automobile?

Considering the failure rate of the x-ray people, it would seem to me that if they really cared about security and not justifying keeping the extra manpower on hand, the TSA would run all carry-on luggage through the x-ray machines twice, with a different security person in charge of the second scan.

txrus

While this may be new @ IAD, this is nothing new for the TSA. I had to fly out of EWR monthly for 18 mos & it happened every time.

petaluma1

This is the price passengers are paying because screeners at SFO let a woman get through without a ticket/BP/ID.

halls120

No, it's the price we pay for being sheep and allowing the travesty of TSA and DHS forced upon us when neither were needed.

petaluma1

Completely agree.

SeriouslyLost

If they really cared about security they would have an entirely different screening system.

For xray you want remote viewing of contents where the screeners see multiple, randomized screen shots from multiple belts, and can pick out bags/items for follow up. Nice, quiet room away from the screening area itself where they can concentrate, have no idea what bag they're screening in terms of the pax in the screening area or if another screener has already passed it, where they work no more than 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off. The vast majority of screening should be done by automated object recognition systems where human screeners only view stuff the automated system flags along with a random number of live bags and some system input target object bags to "keep them awake" and check performance.

RadioGirl

This. Once you stop viewing TSA as security and start understanding it as a jobs program for the otherwise unemployable, a lot of this makes more sense.
And how many of those people with the wrong ID, the non-matching ID, the wrong-day BP or the lack of ID turned out to be a danger to the aircraft? Do you know how hard it is to use "the wrong ID" to blow up a plane?
If it's that important, two checks is not enough. We need a panel of TDCs to vote on the validity of each ID:

jkhuggins

Don't get me wrong ... I agree with you on the general futility of ID checking as a security measure. I'm just trying to offer a reason why TSA would decide to check IDs/BPs twice, given that they've already decided that they need to check them at all.

Yes, I enjoy trying to explain the unexplainable ... why do you ask?

WillCAD

More like this panel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db9Y7i-zTJY