TSA, Airline Security & Me.

Is anyone else out there concerned that TSA and terrorism security is reactive rather than proactive? That we have procedures implemented due to what happened in the past?

I've had fellow travelers tell me how safe they feel due to immigration and screening procedures (once in Atlanta when going through screening as I was distracting the new screener being trained as I had 3 bottles of Flor de Cana Rum in my carryon because I forgot to transfer it to my checked luggage It worked!!!) They have improved their procedures, but I lost a perfectly good Swiss Army knife because Midway did not have a mailing program while Charlotte airport did! (I discovered my error as I sat transfering my pocket items to my carryon. As I was sitting on the ledge of a flower bed, I briefly considered burying the knife in the soil, but thought better of it because I figured I would be observed or on camera and would pay too high a price for it.)

So much for my experiences. There is a lack of uniformity in procedures such as mailing, items allowed, etc) between airports. There is the incorrect sense that TSA are law enforcement personnel (they have no arrest powers). And they know that they are not doing everything that they need to do such as profiling. More on profiling in my next post.

So the time and money spent on scanners and training. Effective? Perhaps, if the images are detailed. But I've already heard that it would not have detected the Detroit underwear bombers bomb. And as I have learned from my experiences in remote image sensoring, humans are very creative at beating imaging. I do it all day long in my business.

Another post on the pluses, minuses of airport security techniques.