http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/06/2...-lines-at-dia/

Sounds like TSA is using bomb sniffing dogs to grant expedited/PreCheck-type screening to passengers at DEN's A bridge.

I'm generally pro-dog (presuming a well-trained dog and well-trained handler), but I wonder what the false positive rate is for dogs vs the false positive rate for ETD? I suspect dogs don't alarm on hand lotion, which would be a mark in their favor. I wonder if they alarm on fertilizer?

I also have to wonder if these dogs will be cross-trained for drug sniffing and cash sniffing.

I had mentioned this some time back and again last week:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20985267-post1434.html

The thread title makes it look as though it's the dogs which are granting the expedited screening !

In some ways they are.

As with anything TSA does, I'll reserve judgement on it until it's been in place long enough to see it's A) intrusiveness, B) use as a bullying or intimidation tool, C) false-positive rate, and D) effectiveness (i.e. false negative rate).

On its surface, however, I like the idea of using sniffer dogs to check out pax instead of the combination of NoS and endless swabs. Removing that swab monkey from our backs can only be a good thing, because it removes one of the most infuriating methods of retaliation and intentional delay that TSOs have.

The truth is, if any ONE item in my carry-on has explosive residue on it, the entire bag will have some residue on it. Swabing more than the outside of the bag is rarely necessary, and swabbing more than the inside of each compartment is never justified. Pulling each item out for an individual swab is nothing more than a giant flip-off from the TSO to the pax.

If dogs can be used instead, I say, buy stock in Alpo and let slip the dogs of peace!

I don't think you'll see explosives dogs cross trained with another detection discipline due to the required response. Every alert would have to be treated as if it were explosives and kick in to action the potential bomb threat response.

If these TSA dogs are as well behaved as the one at Atlanta that bit a lady then I can see this program being another TSA failure.

Too bad for the dogs that the TSA is presumably in charge of their care.

Not that the program makes much sense anyway. 99.99999% of people have no explosives. Are they going to let all those people have expedited screening because the dog found them clear?

Expedited screening as the article describes it is basically pre-9/11 screening:

This could become a back-door method of easing liquid and gel restrictions and sharps prohibitions, which are common-sense changes that we've been talking about on FT for several years. Widespread expedited screening of this type could mean that, after the dog sniffs them, very few folks will get anything more than A) Put your bag on the belt, B) walk through the metal detector, C) have a nice flight. Only when the x-ray operator sees something worth stealing, er, investigating, would a traveler have a bag check or any escalated screening.

If it's kept quiet and rolled out slowly, without fanfare, maybe the FA unions won't go ape over it the way they did with the knives and bats change.

This has potential. Given TSA's abysmal record of human rights and basic inteligence, however, I somehow doubt that it will live up to its potential.

Stupid. Mercury fulminate, nitroglycerin, TNT, ammonium nitrate, PETN, picrates.. etc....
explosives are extremely diverse and not very smelly.
Dogs are not the simple solution.
George Carlin was so very right, airport security was implemented in order
to give stupid people the illusion of safety.

Methinks you are correct tho I hope that it does not happen (a person getting bitten by the dog but not the program failing)

This is so short sighted

Will we see a cost-benefit analysis or some sort of assessment of program effectiveness before it is launched nationwide? That would mean TSA has learned something from the NPRM public comments on use of NOSs...

That is so paranoid.

IIRC, when this was first announced, didn't they say that the roving TSOs with the dogs would 'select' (BDO voo-doo, micro-expressions, whatever) candidates to offer the dog bypass to? It was definitely not going to be an option for everyone.