Academic

TSA, Trusted Traveler, and alternatives to scan/grope

By Tung Yin

I do feel bad for TSA agents; it can't be comfortable to be probing around people's private areas and to be accused regularly of sexual assault and the like.  I'm still skeptical of the utility of the virtual strip searches/gropes, especially in light of Mythbuster Adam Savage's account of how he went through the backscatter scanner, and yet TSA missed the 12 inch razor blades he had inadvertently brought with him.

But what are the available options?  Josh Gerstein at Politico writes that there might be more background checks as an alternative: "in-depth interrogations of travelers at airports, government scrutiny of passengers? airline information, and even creation of a secure, standardized national ID card."  There might also be expansion of the Trusted Traveler program.

Personally, I would much rather have the government ask me in-depth questions a la El Al, or scrutinize my itinerary, or even look into my background, than dose me with backscatter radiation (at least, until there's some more reliable independent testing of the actual effect of such radiation) or grope me.  Others may have a different reaction.

And the Trusted Traveler program looks even better, considering the application fee is just $100(!).  Still, even if invasive screening pushes people toward things like Trusted Traveler, there's going to be a disproportionate effect.  The less frequent travelers, the poor, and the like, are less likely to chose alternatives, and thus will still be subjected to the physically invasive screening.  Yet, as the number of people who are subjected to that dwindles, the outrage is likely to as well.  Right now, there's so much outrage because just about everyone is put through it.  (Well, almost everyone -- but exempting government officials probably makes it worse, not better.)

Meanwhile, it sounds like the train is not going to be a long-term alternative to flying if you want to avoid the screening. . . .

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on November 24, 2010 (boomark / email).