My experience this weekend with the TSA airport screeners wasn’t nearly as bad as I’ve had in the past. There is little consistency in their operation. I have to admit, as a security measure, inconsistency can be a good thing.
The problem I have with them, as I guess just about everyone has, is that they are like our public school administrators–zero tolerance. The book says this, and they will do nothing that deviates from it, regardless of logic. Deviation would require judgement and decision-making.
My sister-in-law wanted to sit with us and have breakfast before departing from San Jose. We flew American and she was on Alaskan Air, which departed from a different terminal. She was a ticketed passenger, but couldn’t go through the checkpoint at our terminal. And, there was nowhere to eat at the airport outside the security area. So, she was turned away. The rules allow only ticketed passengers, but the TSA employees had difficulty with the concept that she had a boarding pass for a different terminal, so they made the safe choice–safe in terms of decision-making, not security. No amount of logical discussion would change their minds.
When I fly, I wear nothing with any metal at all. I don’t wear a belt, and wear slip-on shoes. This time I had on a windshirt which has tiny metal snaps on the sleeves. These have set off metal detectors before. Going through one detector, I crossed my arms to keep the ends as far from the detector as possible. The screener laughed when I showed him why. Going through another, I had my hands in my pockets. The screener chided me to take them out. So, I did and put them up to my face as in prayer. “Arms down to your sides!” I did, and explained about the snaps. “Then you’d have to take it off and go back through again!” Excellent people skills, and certainly security conscious.
I’ve gone through metal detectors set so sensitively that I set it off even though I had absolutely no metal on my person at all! At Hartford, I went through the shakedown after that, and the screener kept rubbing me with the wand and checking it against his watch because nothing was setting it off. All the time, my wallet and computer were sitting at the conveyor 20 feet away, and they wouldn’t allow me to retrieve them. I was getting belligerant, and a cop nearby snickered knowingly. When they finally asked me to roll the front of my pants over to check inside the waistband, I simply undid the plastic button, pulled down the nylon zipper, and opened wide. I was then released, but not allowed to get my personal items until I got my shoes back on. Fortunately, nobody else was getting through cleanly, so there was a pile of things untouched.
I find it true that the amount of authority a person will exercise is inversely proprtional to the amount he has. That is, people with little authority most relish its use. People with great authority seldom feel the need. This is certainly true of TSA employees. And that is the real danger. Using skill and experience to improve security is not part of their mindset. Judgement and personal evaluation of each situation is beyond the capability of many. But they know you are hostage, and enjoy the power.
Update: James Bovard has even more to say about this in Reason.