Originally Posted by
PTravel
What percentage of people hassled by BDOs posed a threat to aviation? I'll even let you include in that statistic, such dire and heinous threats as possession of pot, unpaid parking tickets, and having $4,783 in your possession.
Is it 10%? 1%? I'm betting it's close to .01% and, if you remove pot smokers, illegal parkers and well-paid young people, that number drops to 0.
From USA Today back in November:
Fewer than 1% of airline passengers singled out at airports
for suspicious behavior are arrested, Transportation Security Administration figures show, raising complaints that too many innocent people are stopped.
A TSA program launched in early 2006 that looks for terrorists using a controversial surveillance method has led to more than 160,000 people in airports receiving scrutiny, such as a pat-down search or a brief interview. That has resulted in 1,266 arrests, often on charges of carrying drugs or fake IDs, the TSA said.
From the 60 Minutes segment in December:
60 Minutes asked TSA if any of the 180,000 passengers stopped by the behavior officers for an interview turned out to be a terrorist. They wouldn't tell us, but congressional sources said no.