Originally Posted by
chollie
Has anyone ever actually witnessed people in the regular line who have passed the 'smell test' being moved to the Pre lane (assuming it was open)?
If there are no Pre lanes, then the only point to the dogs is to avoid a Brussels scenario.
Originally Posted by
chollie
?? TSA says they've got sniffer dogs and they're going to be getting more. I'm taking their word for it. They don't have a lot of dogs right now, so it doesn't surprise me that I've rarely seen them.
Somehow I don't think I'm getting my point across to you - and I acknowledge that's apparently my fault.
TSA says they have dogs and will be getting more.
TSA says managed inclusion is dead. TSA says the dogs will speed up security.
How will the dogs speed up security if they are sniffing pax in a terminal with no Pre line? How will the dogs speed up security if they sniff both Pre and regular lines (what I witnessed) and go away?
If the dogs aren't being used to speed up security (no Pre lanes or they sniff everybody but no one appears to pass the sniff test - no one gets 'expedited'), then what are they being used for in those circumstances?
I can only think of two things.
1) it's MUCH faster than swabbing/testing everyone, so it's an added 'layer', but it doesn't speed anything up.
2) it's a way of preventing a Brussels-style attack by eliminating the possibility of explosives in the packed lines.
If you can think of another possible reason for using the dogs while not expediting any pax, I'm all ears! Seriously!
The only time I've ever seen a canine at a c/p was in Feb 2015, during Managed Inclusion II, at MCO. The queue post-TDC was altered to create a penalty box in the middle, where the canine and handler were stationed. The rest of the queue was routed around the penalty box, giving the dog plenty of opportunity to sniff passing travelers. Once they passed the dog, travelers then entered a larger queue area where about a dozen ETD machines were set up in a row, each with a TSO manning it. Every traveler had their hands swabbed and tested, and moved on. The rest of the screening was the PreCheck paradigm - shoes, belts, and light outerwear on, laptops inside bags, a pass through the WTMD, and done. I saw one traveler who alarmed the WTMD or had some other issue sent to the AIT, but I doubt that it was mere random selection, since I only saw the one out of several hundred travelers, and only one AIT was in operation.
It was, I must say, the easiest, quickest, least-invasive screening I've had since scope-and-grope started. I was through it in less than ten minutes, despite the volume of travelers being equal to what, in my experience, has caused 30-45 minute waits at that same queue in the past.
Heck, I think it was the best screening experience I've seen since 9/11, although I believe the addition of an ETD canine and the ETD machines were both reasonable, non-invasive improvements over the standard pre-9/11 screening.
To be clear, this was the main queue, not a PreCheck queue. It literally handled half of MCO's traffic (for those who have never been, MCO had two queues, one at each end of the main terminal, each handling half of the airport's 129 gates). There didn't appear to be any separate PreCheck queue that day, since all travelers were essentially being including in PreCheck-style screening.
I had some hope afterward that this would become the new norm, but later I read about MI II, and that it had ended, and on my last trek through MCO the queue was back to normal, with AIT for most, no penalty box, no canine, no ETD swabs, and a 40-minute wait with about the same volume of travelers. Ponderous, man. Ponderous.
Originally Posted by
BSBD
My apologies if we're not communicating well. Here's what I'm trying to say:
I do not believe that TSA is making ANY effort to prevent a land-side attack, like the Brussels attack. It's not their job. Their job is to try to prevent damage to airside and aircraft. It's not about the passengers and other airport patrons (which were the target of the Brussels attackers), it's about the "essential infrastructure."
The dogs are not there to stop Brussels-style attackers. They are there to add a sense of legitimacy to random inclusion (aka Managed Inclusion).
They may use that excuse to justify giant, obvious gaps in their screening, but it doesn't gibe with the fact that they're still rabid when it comes to guns (and images of guns), sharps, and 'bludgeoning weapons' like lightsaber canes. These items have never posed any threat to the aircraft themselves; they only pose a danger to the flight crew and passengers, and were banned out of fear that they could be used for hijacking, not out of fear of them bringing down a plane. They're almost useless now, with secured cockpit doors and the
"OMG HE'S GONNA KILL US ALL STOMP HIM INTO THE CARPET 9/11 9/11 9/11!!!!!" attitude that most pax bring aboard the plane.