Originally Posted by
average_passenger
Well, I honestly don't see any problems with putting a name tag on your carry-on items and then having a TSO check your boarding pass/ID before you can take the item off the x-ray belt.
The problem is that the TSA screener who would do this job is drawn from the same pool of employees as the TDC who, while holding two pieces of paper with your name on them, requires you to state your name out loud.
I'm not convinced they are competent to match your boarding pass to the name tag on your carry-on.
In some non-US airports (SIN for one), there's a laminated card with a number on it for each bin, and the corresponding number glued in the bottom of the bin. The passenger puts their stuff in the bin, carries the card through the WTMD, and returns the card to the security person manning the outflow of the x-ray, who can ensure that it matches the bin with your stuff. (
Can ensure. Do they check? I don't know. But I imagine it discourages random theft.) As you take your stuff out of the bin, the security person puts the card back in the bin. It's cheap, easy, effective, caters for people who don't speak the local language and it's standardized (no searching for where the tag is on everyone's carry-on.)
Such a system would never work for TSA for three reasons:
- These other airports don't have NoS, random patdowns, shoe removal, or (IME) ETD. They don't check your BP against an ID at the security checkpoint. Consequently, most passengers get through the WTMD quickly and wait for their stuff to come out of the x-ray. There aren't numerous bins piling up as passengers are delayed with other nonsense.
- These non-US airports also don't have security personnel wasting time on NoS duty, random patdowns, blocking the WTMD, SPOTting, or moving shoes from the belt to a bin or from a bin to the belt
. They don't stand around watching passengers get groped by their colleagues, nor do they roam the terminal testing drinks at the gate or re-searching people who have already been through security. They can therefore afford to have one person per lane whose job it is to reunite the laminated card with its corresponding bin.
- It's cheap, easy, effective, caters for people who don't speak the local language and it's standardized. Little scope for chest-puffing or yelling or authoritah.
