Yikes... and I thought I was pretty good at searching forums by now. I guess I was wrong, and my apologies for that. I don't like necro'ing old threads, but those weren't even that old... sorry.

Anyway...

What seems to be the focus in most cases is what kind of technology and machines to use at the checkpoints, and while that is all good, I think it's possible (well, I know it's possible) to actually make an airport security checkpoint work well on a skeleton crew of machines, focusing more on the human side. Mmw could be used to resolve an alarm due to someone using deep concealment, for example, but nothing else.

When I was still working in airport security (long ago now, and before all the craziness) we once screened 1.500 soldiers coming from an exercise, going from military to civilian aircraft / airport with nothing but rubber gloves, wands and a carry-on x-ray machine. It didn't take all that long either, and none of them got even a knife through. More important, none of them felt agitated, invaded, pissed off, miffed or abused after their screening.

I'm not saying that's what should be done, I'm just thinking that relying too much on the machines makes the whole process alien to everyone, and the goal might be that much harder to achieve. People respond better to people than machines.

djmagnum mentioned the Israeli method... I for one agrees that it works, better than anything we're doing in the US or EU. The problem is that the method isn't transferable, due to the large number of passengers in the EU and US. It just can't be done the same way they're doing it. If it was done as a supplement to traditional methods, you'd still have to reduce the number of "selectees" to a tiny fraction of what comes through checkpoints every day. Remember that El Al security can spend hours with one passenger, if that passenger "fails" their profiling initially.

I agree with MeVoy that the no-fly lists are unconstitutional. And unfair. And... not working at all. I'm not so sure about the ID-checks - at least, you'd be sure that the people on the plane are actually those that are on the list. That makes sense to confirm in case there's an accident, etc. Yes, yes, anyone can fake an ID. Point is, not many people do - because there's no reason to. So that means I'm for ID checks, but maybe not motivated by security concerns...

There's one thing that Israel does that would work anywhere; training. I still think that well-trained humans are the best bet when it comes to airport security, but right now, it's all about machines, and security ends up working against the people, instead of with them.

-SB-