Sure, but it's not necessarily right to use another method either. It all depends on the details.

If one of the methods is inefficient or annoying, then it's probably wrong to use it. For example, if it takes 10 minutes to call the DMV to verify that the DL number is valid and matches the person, then it's probably 'wrong'.

We are in agreement there, sir.

As I've often said, I personally find the TDC procedures to be a waste of manpower and time. That, however, doesn't change the fact that I still have a job to do.

Sadly, anything you might get back to me on about what you might consider to be a possible security feature of the passport, I'll have to give you that "I can neither confirm nor deny" answer.

It's just something you're going to have to take me at my word on (which, by the way, I already know is probably going to be impossible given that I work for the TSA :p).

Right you are, and I was thinking just that when I was writing out the A-B-C-to-get-to-D thing. Obviously I can't tell you specifically what it is, but method C for passport verification qualifies as the rough equivalent of the scenario you mentioned with the DMV. Although no phone calls would have to be made (at that point, anyway) it would still be way too time-consuming for general use at the TDC position. The only time I could even remotely think of an instance that I would utilize that particular method of authentication is if I was faced with a passport that struck me as fraudulent, and it'd likely be the last step I took before summoning a supervisor myself for LEO notification.

As you so eloquently put it...

One of the oldest authentication tricks in the book is the intentional error. I'll let it go at that. So, TSA, don't flatter yourselves, OK???

Just to point out another feature of the uselessness of ID checks, twice this year I have used an expired and canceled passport to get by the security dragons.

I carry a current and an expired passport, as the expired passport contains a couple of multiple-entry visas that are still valid for several more years. They are in the same pocket of my case, so I usually pull them out together and hand over the current one.

Twice I have given them the old one, and they have performed the TSA magical passes upon it, marked my boarding card with the mystic TSA runes of passage, and then given both back to me.

Pointless exercise in tax-dollar waste.

This is nonsense. I have just reviewed by US passport issued in 2001. The first two pages contain my signature and ID data. Pages 2 through 6 contain disclaimer, warnings, and other drivel. Page 7 contains emergency contact data. Pages 8 though 45 are used for stamps and visas. Pages 46 through 48 are reserved for amendments - this might be what you are talking about, but it would hardly be SSI. The back page has a barcode - perhaps your eyes double as laser scanners?

BTW, I have used my passport exclusively as ID at airports since 2001, and no one, including the TSO's, has EVER flipped through the pages.

Listen to the music, not the song.

No, I'm not a Peruvian (let's see if anybody gets that reference~!).

As I said, methods A, B, and C are all acceptable for getting to D. I just personally find B to be the quickest, most efficient method.

Let me see if I can help Dean out.

When I had to check IDs for a place I worked, I found the quickest way to catch the majority of fake IDs was to look at the wording on the back. Heck a lot of them say in bold letters "Not a Government Issued ID" or to run the ID through a credit card machine. (slide it up not down) to see if the magnetic strip was real and if it had information on it.

It stands to reason that a forger would spend most of his time on the details of what is normally looked at. I have taken a few fake IDs that looked perfect on the face but the back had the wrong font, wrong wording, misspellings, or a disclaimer stating novelty use only.

If Dean knows of a quicker way to check the validity of a document by checking something other than the biography page he should use it.

At least that way he will make breaking the law a little more convenient on the victim. ;)

Before y'all beat up on Dean too much just remember he is one of the good guys that just happens to work for the TSA.

I am still calling shenanigans on you (and I think you do get that reference!)

A few weeks into the current ID circus, I was called up to the supervisor's podium and reprimanded because I supposedly wasn't spending enough time checking IDs.

I didn't even bother to attempt to explain that a dozen or so years as an editor has endowed me with the ability to process written information very quickly (and accurately) ... I just slowed down. Wayyyyyy down! :p

So utterly asinine that it's actually funny.

That's a pretty good description of my job, actually! :)

You can call anything you want, you're still ignoring the music while paying too much attention to the song.

And I'm not going to be any more direct about it than that. ;)