rotor wrote:Ruark wrote:I don't know if there is a solution to the long lines. We've had people try to blow up airplanes with explosives in their shoes and underwear. We HAVE to be vigilant. We have to ask people to take off watches, belts, shoes, etc. because nobody's invented a metal detector that will detect ONLY weapons. That's just going to take X amount of time when you have hundreds and hundreds of people trying to get through the gates at once. I don't really know what the answer is, beyond having 75 security lines.
My suggestion with this post was that perhaps people that were already vetted could get through an abbreviated line without the additional vetting that one can buy from TSA such as precheck or global pass. Although I have not done it my understanding is that you can go into the Capitol in Austin armed with a LTC. People that have been vetted ought to be able to board a plane with a minimal exam. I doubt that precheck and global check do a better security check than what you had to get your LTC.
I travel a lot. And what gets me is that even though I hold the highest level of Federal government security clearances, and have also been through that vetting process for LTC, I still have to participate in Precheck, Clear, airline Platinum and soon one more program to have a chance of getting through the line without going through that major hassle.
To me the elephant in the room is that we are still stuck on the fear of behavioral profiling (as is done in some other countries, and was promised to be incorporated here) and so we waste a significant amount of time treating everyone as equals - which in this case means treating someone's 94 year old grandfather who is a veteran and a LTC (and this is a real example) as a potential security threat.
Meanwhile, it seems that TSA spends more time watching the clock so that they don't unlock and open the security gates 30 seconds early in the morning at IAH (real example)...because that clearly completes the illusion of security (we MUST be secure, they don't even open the gate a second early). Or they miss explosives in a shoe but you must toss your potentially dangerous liquids (more than the size limit that was picked out of nowhere) right there (next to the long line of people) so it will be then somehow rendered safe. And don't even get me started about the one TSA guy who works in IAH terminal B who is so obese that he has to cling to the urinal to be able to use it (while gasping for breath), because that sure makes me feel safer. </end rant>
