How to fix airport security (from a former TSA director)

Worthwhile reading in the WSJ.

Yes, Kip Hawley as a book coming out but his article makes for a good primer on why certain procedures were put into place and what could be done today to improve the security checkpoint experience.
How to Fix Airport Security

Air travel would be safer if we allowed knives, lighters and liquids on board and focused on disrupting new terrorist plots, writes a former head of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley.

Excellent. Thanks for sharing.

When I first read that in the WSJ, I thought what nice ideas but they will never happen since:

a) the dysfunctional Congress will never address common sense ideas

b) the first anomaly would result in such an uproar in the press, mostly by self appointed expert talking heads and also initiation of class action suits, no one will even attempt to make any common sense changes.

I go with the flow and now can even send my iPad through without taking it out of my bag which is something that has snuck in under the radar so to speak.

Nothing the TSA does now really bothers me anymore except inconsistency which is the main approach Mr Hawley advocates and I think they do a great job overall.


Cheers

The huge and expensive beaureacracy known as the TSA is like a lot of other government programs, i.e. farmer subsidies, ethanol production, etc. that once established now has a life of its own. The amount of money that has been and will be spent on so called airport security is an absolute abomination. I saw a figure the other day that tried to put it into perspective and it was incredible how much it costs to provide the so-called airport security. I wish I could be optimistic that somehow the current TSA could be dismantled and the money put to much better use But alas, like most government programs it now has a lobby to protect it and we taxpayers are now stuck paying for it. We could use a lesson from the Israelis.

Orange, a UK cell and internet provider, parodies the TSA in this cinema advertisement. -- Just about anyone going to the movies in the UK has seen this:

Originally Posted by X3 Skier

I go with the flow and now can even send my iPad through without taking it out of my bag which is something that has snuck in under the radar so to speak.

This is probably because they changed the policy to allow anything except for laptops to stay in the bag, because with the number of ipads, the wait times was increased.

Also if anyone travel's through airports with TSA Pre, I highly recommend it as you only have to take off your belt and take out your cellphone, nothing else! It is like the old days. (they also don't realize if you sneak through slightly larger than 3oz liquids)

Originally Posted by rmorin49

We could use a lesson from the Israelis.

Having flown from Israel, they do an amazing job compared to well anyone. I was flying just after the scare happened with the underwear bomber. After I went through Israel security, Delta did a brief patdown 'checking' I presume for anything in the pants. It was a joke compared to Israel security. They have trained specialists who are ex military (every adult in Israel) and are trained to detect differences by talking to the passengers and not just random and useless screenings by TSA (doing a patdown search on a 5 year old, really!) TSA is just as about worthless, we might as well go back to pre 9/11 security.

I was flying through Scotland during highschool and had my biology textbook. This threw an alarm for being a bomb and the supervisor ran over and the police were there in moments. Turned out I had done a lab with hydrogen peroxide and that is considered a bomb chemical. Quite a scare

I leave in an hour for a flight from Dulles to Frankfurt. The wife and I spent more time organizing our luggage in an attempt to get through "security" quickly and without a hassle than we did packing everything for a 3 week stay in Europe. Sad, but true.

< sigh >

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17850134

The current employees, John Whitfield, 23, and Capeline McKinney, 25, are accused of allowing shipments of more than 20kg (44lb) to pass through a screening area while they were on shift.

Former TSA screener Joy White, 27, is accused of a similar offence, while Naral Richardson, 30, is alleged to have made arrangements for shipments to pass unhindered.