Originally Posted by
Custardthecat
Seems a fair assertion that a dog has a limited attention span of about 20-30mins of constant working. They also need time out to be rewarded. It is also true that they are trained by commodity and whilst some are multi-scented they would be of little use for electronic / electrical component parts or offensive weapons such as knives. I suppose there are a large number of chemicals that could be used in a device and it stands to reason that the dog is not going to be able to cover all the potential threats by scent. Can't see it working on an industrial scale as a primary system. Seems to me that they would be of more use as a focused resource used in a targeted way and supplementing the primary regime, as imperfect as it may be.
Actually, being very focused on explosives only, the dogs would be quite effective around large crowds. I once witnessed a dog point out one guy with a box of ammunition (but no gun) among hundreds of people. Which is why organizations like the military, the Secret Service, and police bomb squads use dogs - but I guess by TSA standards any of those would be an incompetent organization.
Ideally one would not want large lines of people in an exposed environment like that awaiting security screening...and the WBI machines have lengthened lines due to their being sooooo slow. WTMD is incredibly effective at detecting metal, and metal is far and away the most effective material for constructing a reliable gun. Twenty years ago, when the big concern was the potential for someone with a ceramic knife to hijack an airplane, hold everyone hostage and demand something in return, WBI might have been useful; but with passengers that assume anybody taking over the plane will kill them, very secure cockpit doors, and heat wielding pilots, ceramic knives are of ABSOLUTE ZERO concern to me now.
Effective airport security should be much simpler than it currently is. Have dog handlers walking around in the areas outside security, letting the dogs work, and switching off periodically. Use WTMD to scan passengers, and bring back the hand held wands (also very effective - why did they go away?) for use when alarming. Pat downs should be based on standard law enforcement practice, perhaps even done by LEOs, only when wanding does not reveal issues. If the underwear bomber was carrying 80g of explosives, the dogs probably would have detected it as soon as he entered the terminal.