No proof airport security makes flying safer - Surprise?

[Marc]

From Reuters:

Originally Posted by Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Airport security lines can annoy passengers, but there is no evidence that they make flying any safer, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

A team at the Harvard School of Public Health could not find any studies showing whether the time-consuming process of X-raying carry-on luggage prevents hijackings or attacks.

They also found no evidence to suggest that making passengers take off their shoes and confiscating small items prevented any incidents.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration told research teams requesting information their need for quick new security measures trumped the usefulness of evaluating them, Eleni Linos, Elizabeth Linos, and Graham Colditz reported in the British Medical Journal.

"We noticed that new airport screening protocols were implemented immediately after news reports of terror threats," they wrote.

"Even without clear evidence of the accuracy of testing, the Transportation Security Administration defended its measures by reporting that more than 13 million prohibited items were intercepted in one year," the researchers added. "Most of these illegal items were lighters."

The researchers said it would be interesting to apply medical standards to airport security. Screening programs for illnesses like cancer are usually not broadly instituted unless they have been shown to work.

"We'd like airport security screening to be of value. As passengers and members of the public we'd like to know the evidence and the reasoning behind these measures," Linos said in a telephone interview.

"Can you hide anything in your shoes that you cannot hide in your underwear?" they asked.

Read more....

[tomvehoski]

I'm glad articles like this are starting to show up in the mainstream media. It is 99% for show.

I love how TSA admits they don't know if their measures work, they just implement them.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration told research teams requesting information their need for quick new security measures trumped the usefulness of evaluating them,

Of course, the success they have had are secrets:

While we can't publicize everything that we've done, every event, we can say definitively that our efforts over the last five years have not been for nothing," White added.

Of course they will make a big deal of the next 20 year old they catch with a fake ID, because college students that want to go bar hopping underage on Friday night are a serious threat to aviation security on Monday morning.

[Benjamin28]

It's no surprize to anyone who works in the industry that security is just for show. They used to pat me down and throw me through the security screeners when I worked in/around the terminals, meanwhile I could easily go downstairs, through a hall and through an ID reader secure doorway up a stairwell and completely bypass security. Either way took the same time usually.

We had checkpoints on the field as well...they'd open the back of my truck (which we used as a portable laboratory for field testing of fuel/systems) and it would be full of all kinds of "dangerous" chemicals/instruments. I once had a security guy say "I don't know what the hell i'm supposed to be looking for here, this all looks dangerous". Of course he waved me through because these things were my tools on a daily basis and completely required to do my job.

If we really want security at airports we have to take a lesson from Israeli security, stop worrying about being PC, and start focusing on the people and not just on the luggage.

What kind of training do TSA employees recieve in regard to recognizing unusual behaviors and taking action to stop and question people who display such behavior? A person who is planning on blowing himself up in a couple hours will likely be acting strangely and should be looked for and interviewed, not some random grandma who got picked by a computer program to be randomly patted down and searched after already being patted down and searched already when entering the airport. Consider security at a casino, they're looking at the people all the time, looking for behaviors and actions, they're not patting people down to look for radios, mirrors, dice, cards...and yet they are greatly successful.

It's a matter of toughening up, if we truly want to have security when travelling we have to be less squeamish about who's feelings we hurt and that would mean shedding some freedoms at our airports. I don't think it will happen until the next great tragedy occurs....because we're too concerned about lawsuits and treating everyone as equals, mostly lawsuits though, we're lawsuit happy here.

[Marc]

Some thoughts on Airport Security (.mp3 file)

[Stijloor]

Originally Posted by Marc

Some thoughts on Airport Security (.mp3 file)

Great observations from George! As always....

Stijloor.

[Marc]

Rut Row...

[Helmut Jilling]

Originally Posted by Marc

Some thoughts on Airport Security (.mp3 file)

Great stuff! Lewis is always painfully funny.

[BradM]

Well... sometimes it works. They were able to catch the ruffian on the left.




(For those uncultured in fine movies, You can research Spinal Tap going through airport security).