Originally Posted by
Superguy
There are always unintended and unplanned consequences. Some of them can't reasonably be anticipated. However, many can be and I think they're being ignored.
There are many ways to do risk based screening. Some ideas are good, some aren't. This is one of them that isn't.
I think in the right organization, RBS is a good idea.
I think in the hands of a poorly trained, badly managed organization that can't even train the workforce at a single airport to pay extra attention to a single specific issue (ostomy bag handling at DTW) - that organization lacks the leadership and qualifed personnel to implement effective RBS.
In the strange workplace that is the TSA, we hear that TSOs hands are tied, they are not allowed to exercise common sense and independent judgment while simultaneously they are allowed to make up rules on the fly and to disregard the base rules established on the website. On top of that, any FSD can apparently modify rules at will without notifying the public in anyway.
Effective RBS requires a much better run organization to really work.
I think RBS at the checkpoint will result in a free-for-all where 'risk' is assessed by the individual TSO and the rules are anybody's guess. Might give more latitude to sensible TSOs, but with no will or effort to rein in the 'bad apples', it will probably be worse than what we have now.