Start getting rid of the “let’s just hire more (unqualified) people to staff this; more personnel = better security” mentality, and start installing machines to get rid of inefficiencies that really doesn’t add to better security.
A. Get rid of the TSO who does nothing but stand there all day yelling out the same thing over and over again. A big LCD TV with video on autoloop or a speaker system with audio on auto-repeat does the same thing than hiring that person $20,000 per year per every security checkpoint. That alone will save millions every year in wasted taxes.
B. Why is it that the US security checkpoints rely on the inefficiency of hiring one extra person whose sole job is to manually drag the tray cart back over to the other side? Every country I’ve visited does a better job at making this more efficient by a) widening the security island (Canada) so the security personnel can stay within that island rather than bugging other customers as they hoard their lard a$$ through the security, b) add an angled railing so tray slide back over to the other side (Italy), c) conveyor belts/rollers going the other way which automatically bring back the trays to the other side (UK, Europe, Japan, etc…)
C. Better yet, just get rid of the TSA for all domestic travel and just focus them to international travel only. A terrorist ain’t gonna go for the regional jet, you’re going for the ones that carry the most passengers which can cause the most amount of damage; large wide-bodies. Sure there are wide-body aircraft for long haul domestic flights, but those can be handled with FAMs or pilots with a sidearm. This would probably require a reshuffle of the entire US airport terminals to be separated for domestic flights and international flights but consolidation is the first step to organizing something that is chaotic and a mess. Better to spend money consolidating a single time than continuing to spend billions year after year for something that doesn’t work and adds to more confusion and chaos. Focusing on international flights only would also drastically cut down costs to fire every inept TSO out there and actually hire real professionals who show face to the international traveler what America really stands for instead of Gestapo run by people who barely got through their GEDs.
D. With C above, consolidate the international traffic to major hubs only rather than a loose definition that any airport in the US can become an international airport if need be. International flights should only be restricted to the following airports: ANC, HNL, SEA, PDX, SFO, LAX, LAS, SLC, DEN, PHX, MSP, ORD, STL, DTW, DFW, IAH, MIA, ATL, IAD, PHL, EWR, JFK, BOS along with airports under US jurisdiction like GUM, SPN, SJU and the USVI. Focus security to where it counts instead of having it spreadout to hundreds of podunk regional airports across the US. Face it, there's never going to be a BOI-LHR, ABQ-CDG, or JAX-NRT flight even though they may have the "International" name in their official airport name.
