Originally Posted by myrgirl
Wait a minute. You two work at the airport and wear SIDA badges and they made you take off your shoes? That's so wrong. Tell 'em next time to check the SOP, you're exempt from the profiled shoe policy. (As long as you use your SIDA badge to gain access. If you're flying, you're a passenger.)
And many of those employees use their badge to gain access as a passenger.
The shoe carnival falls in long-standing tradition of the aviation sector being reactionary. 737s drop out of the sky in COS and PIT...whoops, gotta check the rudders. Richard Reid lights up his shoe...whoops, gotta remove the shoes. Women blow up airplanes in Russia....whoops, gotta feel up women's breasts.
The problem with that last part is that the bombers BRIBED their way through. Employees and security personnel were the weak link.
There is nothing that the TSA can do to prevent a pair of unscreened shoes being transferred to another person with screened shoes. So, if the dog and pony show includes screened shoes by passengers in sterile areas, the minimum-wage workers at McDonald's and other places (who might have much less to lose than the average business traveler) should have their shoes screened as well.
Remote....over the top....ridicuclous? Maybe. Then again, so is feeling up grandma and patting the privates of a five year-old.