Given that it's cold, people will be inevitably casting their eyes southward looking at a vacation. Inevitably, they will be flying and as a result, some will have to deal with the US TSA's new, more elaborate enhanced security. This security is causing protests throughout America, as people believe that the TSA has finally crossed a line.
The problem has two components. One is a full body scan, which shows an image of the passenger's body without clothing, which security officials hope also shows things underneath their clothing they might want to hide. Apart from some people simply not wanting themselves seen without a thread, some people are concerned that the radiation might have some unknown health risks. The other part of the problem is for people uncomfortable with the aforementioned scan, and that is a pat-down which covers, to use an old soap slogan, all of your 2,000 parts. Both security measures are being blasted as a violation of rights and privacy, and have drawn protests from throughout the country.
Whether or not I am comfortable with the security measures, and to be honest in my case it really hurts the TSA employees more than it does me, I can't help but think that the measures are doing more harm than good. While the idea is to find more suspicious material, it actually does not do much more than old procedures. Besides which, as the metodology behind them is well known anyway, someone will find a way to bypass them if they so desire. Not to suggest that security is pointless, but enhanced measures are not quite worth the expense it takes to implement them.
The expense is not merely in the price of the body scanning machines, though that price is quite high. It also comes with it a lack of confidence in the TSA and an increased unwillingness to travel. While initial security changes post-9/11 would have served to bolster confidence in security and hopefully make people more comfortable following a traumatic event, in this case we are nine years out without a large attack in the interim. It appears less like security is increasing in response to a threat, but more like it is increasing for no obvious reason. While people will comply if they believe there is a need, without that need it appears as though the TSA is arbitrarily making methods more intrusive, and people are more unwilling to comply.
It also will make it more difficult for the agency to recruit. TSA agents are already reporting an increased amount of abuse and some have said they are uncomfortable conducting the scans. As the measures become more widespread, it is possible that the agents themselves will become fed up with the increased trouble and just quit. With the wider world knowing what the job entails, it will likely become a challenge to recruit. Without as many agents, lineups will become longer, and without as many quality agents, the security risks making it through the checkpoint will increase.
While the goal is noble, the end result is not actually making the skies safer, and is just making people more unwilling to fly. The end result is bad for airlines, bad for passengers, and believe it or not, bad for the TSA. There's a line between security and comfort, and the TSA needs to perch on it, rather than falling off to one side.
