Originally Posted by
jkhuggins
See, I'm of more of a mixed mind about the whole thing. Many TSA critics have called on TSA to quit screening "obvious" non-threats like kids and retirees and focus screening on intelligence-based targets. Well ... how is the TSA supposed to determine what passengers merit additional screening without doing some sort of analysis of the available data?
Trusted Traveler appears, to this completely uninformed bystander, to be getting at that process in a sort of inverse manner: they're using available data to choose whom not to screen intensely, rather than identifying threats. Ok, it's a bit backwards ... but if Trusted Traveler becomes available on a widespread basis (i.e. not just FF elites and GE holders), it might accomplish the same ends.
In short ... TSA is trying to be more intelligent about who it spends time screening. Isn't this basically a good thing?
Many TSA critics, but not all. I believe kids and retirees and everyone else in between should be screened - with a WTMD and a baggage x-ray, and perhaps random ETD; with a HHMD and a gentle (Asia/Europe/Australia-style) patdown to resolve any WTMD alarms. Period.
6-yr-olds should not have their genitals handled by a TSA screener as part of a "random" search. But then, neither should 16-yr-olds, 26-yr-olds, 36-yr-olds, 46-yr-olds, 56-yr-olds, etc.
Even if TT was in response to the complaints, as you suggest, are there that many toddlers that are FF elites? That many 7-yr-olds who have a good enough credit history to pass the application? Are most GE and Nexus members young children or retirees? IOW, how does the current trial, or the predictable extension, address the problem of screening those who appear to be a non-threat?
It is not (or at least, it should not be) a question of "who will receive lighter screening" but a question of "are the 'regular' screening methods appropriate for anyone". If they are not appropriate, it is a waste of time deciding which subgroup should be exempt from them.
And since we don't yet have answers to my questions above, for the time being we will have to assume that non-US citizens (and possibly US citizens resident abroad) will not be part of the "widespread" application you envision. Which means that French toddlers and Australian retirees and German nuns will still be considered "UnTrusted Travelers." Why exactly should such people "merit additional screening"? How did they become "intelligence-based targets" simply by being ineligible for the TT program?