chollie

The problem with quotas in this situation is also that it leads to an assumption that every day, every week, there will be 'x' number of guilty pax. Failure to meet the numbers suggests sub-par performance by the BDOs.

It also generates a false sense of security. If the targets are met, we must be safe - even if the targets are met by attacking folks who are not and never were a threat to aviation security.

Hypothetically, if part of TSA's 'unpredictable' approach (meaning "we can't train our people to maintain the same level of consistency that the average McDonald's worker produces) is to act as a deterrent to bad guys, at some point, most, if not all, of the bad guys will give up and go try something else somewhere else. If that is not true, then it undercuts TSA's rationale for random make-it-up-as-you-go standards at the checkpoint.

Imagine if the President's Secret Service worked this way - if they were required to 'bust' a certain number of suspicious characters every day as part of their job protecting the President. Does anyone think that would make the President safer? Or, instead, less safe, because a Secret Service agent who is pre-occupied with a quota might be so focused on a non-threat that will satisfy his quota that he misses a genuine threat.