I recently had the ultimate hassle of going through three different airports in one trip connecting within two hours of eachleg. The federals have taken over and with their correct new found zeal were doing their job perfectly. I had the misfortune of waiting for over 40 minutes in each check point and randomly chosen for search in two different gates. I am sure this is an experience shared by other frequent travellers as well. Profiling of frequent travellers did not seem to exist as both gates were American airlines', agents saw my EXP card still chose to send me for random search. The result was loss of my ID which I misplaced somewhere and total disorganization of my carry on contents which I always pack very carefully, not mentioning the mental and physical hassle I went through having just recovered from a major illness.
I suggest that the airlines with federal help assign a security score similar to the credit score to all persons. Persons with high score should get a different colored boarding pass which allows them rapid access through screening and freedom from random searches. I am sure it is not very difficult to formulate and the following criteria are suggested by me and open to suggestions and discussion
Age, Lenghth of residence in home, home ownership, citizenship or permanent residence in USA, employment record,frequency of travel, multiple frequent flyer membership, no registered weapons, family back ground,vehicle ownership, driving license records,insurance records, religion (Unfortunately necessary due to extermists of that one religion causing all this mayhem)and other criteria which other members may suggest.
Once the criteria are finalised by the FTs we should probably through Randy, lobby the Security agency for this score to become an integral part of our living and for issue an ID card with different colors according to our security scores.
Otherwise we are entering an era of endless hassle during travel, billions of dollars wasted and billions of man hours wasted which is precisely what the terrorists want.

Looks like you've done a bit too much George Orwell reading. I don't want any of that kind of data about me stored in any Us federal database whatsoever. If anything near what you are suggesting was to be implemented, I wouldn't put my feet on US soil until they are repealed. I have nothing to fear from such investigations, but my privacy means the world to me.

No thanks!

One quick pass thru the initial checkpoint: no beep at the magnetometer, nothing amiss on the x-ray = NO SEARCHES OF ANY KIND.


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"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited 11-25-2002).]

Running the bags through the Xray, and walking through the magnometer, IS a search.

Did you ever try the interactive online demo which lets you play the role of Xray operator? Does a good job of showing how difficult it is to screen bags with 100% accuracy on the Xray.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/729756.asp?cp1=1

Click on the "Can you spot the threats?" graphic.

Yes, you're right.

No beep + Nothing amiss = NO FURTHER SEARCHES OF ANY KIND.

Yes, I imagine in can be difficult, especially with no training. If there is something unclear in a bag, that's one thing. Randomly opening bags for the hell of it is another thing.

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"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

Two objections:

(1) The TSA now has the resources, and the wherewithal, to theoretically hire and train their operators to be among the best in the world at what they do. It's not as though they're facing a real budget crunch, you know.
(2) The operators are given quite a bit of latitude in determining whether a bag requires further search. It's not as though their job requires 100% accuracy; they have the luxury of being allowed a comparatively generous false positive rate.

Given (1) and (2) above, there should be no need for random, unnecessary searches often conducted for no better reason than to (a) keep the screeners busy, (b) give them some practice, (c) justify their salaries, or (d) some combination of the above.

Mook

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"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."

-- Thomas Jefferson

If you read the following extremely funny trip report you will understand the need for the score
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/002571.html

I am basically questioning the need to screen in DETAIL every body who choses to or need to fly. Tomorrrow God forbid, if an attack occurs at a Mall or Football game imagine screening of everey person before the game or entering a busy mall.We have accepted Credit scores, social security number and driver license as an integral part of our life and why not accept security scores as well?

I think drbala has an interesting view though a bit Orwelian. This is called Triage in the emergency care, you chose those who need attention first when flooded with casualties. Similarly we need to set up a valid and efficient profiling system

The technology doesn't yet exist for that level of confidence to be placed on the Xray screening alone. Are you really so stupid that you can't understand that?

The technology just isn't there yet. Doesn't matter how well the operator is trained nor how much experience they have, they will still miss some weapons. Knives and concealed explosives are particularly difficult to detect on Xrays.

Are we back to this again?

Are you so stupid that you don't understand that many of the objects on the prohibited items list are not credible weapons that may be employed to hijack an aircraft?

A lot of my pilot friends and other airline employees are facing layoffs. How much more damage is the TSA going to have to do to commercial aviation in the US before it affects you personally, LarryJ?



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"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

This sounds very similar to what the TSA has already proposed, with a trusted flyer card. There is no logical reason to oppose this, because guess what? If you do not want to give that information to the government, you do not have to do so! You will, of course, be subject to wait in longer lines, but that's your choice.

I have no problem with it. I've got nothing to hide, so go ahead, take a look at my background, do the check, and then please let me blow past all the folks who claim that airport security as it is constituted violates the Constitution.

I've got nothing to hide either -- but I do have something to stand up for and that's the civil liberties of all of us. Agreeing to this whole concept is WRONG WRONG WRONG! Oh sure -- it starts innocently enough at first. But, where do you think it will end? In little bits and steps, small changes here and there, we'll asked to gradually -- and voluntarily -- give up our freedoms.

Be careful -- every ounce of your freedom that you trade away is gone forever. You will never get it back

Just say NO to big brother!

Whether or not I have a gun permit is NOT something the TSA needs to know. Imagine trying to go through *security*: " Please step over here, flowerchild, while we strip and cavity search you because you have a gun permit."