Originally Posted by article
The policy recommendation came from a front line security officer who screens passengers every day who observed that game consoles and DVD players are complex devices much like laptop computers. This change brings more uniformity to their policy.
Why implement this recommendation?
Surely some GOOD recommendations are submitted by TSOs, things like easing off on the water carnival and shoe carnival (particularly for shoes which would be impossible to conceal explosives within, like flip-flops). Or having a realistic approach to disposing of "dangerous" confiscated liquids. But no, they choose this stupid crap to implement.
I bet there are TSOs who submit recommendations which are just as stupid and worthless, and some who do so deliberately / as a joke.
Makes me wonder what idiocy we'll get next which is credited to / blamed upon "a front line security officer."
And I thought the reason for removing laptops was to allow for better viewing of the contents of the bag, not because they were "complex devices?"
Having disassembled several laptops over the years, I can say they are not really all that complex, and that they should be fairly easy to see and see the components of on x-ray.
This reminds me of the debate I had with a TSA officer once, who was complaining I didn't remove my camera from its bag. "All cameras have to be screened separately," he said, as he called for a bag check. I explained that it was only VIDEO cameras, and at that, the spirit of the rule applied to clunky, old-school VHS cameras, not the uber-mini digital ones of today.
He then tried to claim my camera "could shoot video, too," and thus should be screened like a video camera. I pointed out that as a SLR, it could NOT shoot video, unlike many point-and-shoot cameras. Finally, his supe appeared, took one look at the camera, and said, "Send him on his way." ^