Return to Article: TSA revamping shoe-screening policy
-
11642
I live in a medium-sized midwest city with a small regional airport that employs more than 60 TSA employees at that airport. The ICE office has less than 10 for 1/3 of the state. Here's a thought! Abolish TSA and give it back to Wackenhut and move those positions to where they can accomplish something................................ ICEman
-
11627
The removal of shoes is a joke! I had to remove shoes at Dulles airport but not in Memphis, San Diego, St Louis, or Las Vegas. It appears to me that shoe search is a political thing only done where government people will most likely see it. The entire shoe search idea is crazy and should be dropped totally. The government should not waste my money developing machines to "read shoes".
-
11530
Admittedly the shoe business (sorry for the pun...)was ridiculous but racial profiling has not worked particularly well in the long term. Our opponent actually obtains insight into our tactics if we dump the same kind of people all the time and he will adjust accordingly. It may take a little while but they will catch us with our drawers down while we are busy with our by then unrealistic profiles.
That does not, however, mean you can't target on other meaningful characterstics, employ rovers, and take other measures to make sure your stuff is up to date. Our targeting across the government is often, in my opinion, kneejerk, predictable, and a means to show we are "doing something". We need to make it clear to potential attackers that we are on the ball. That requires committment and time on the part of dedicated civil servants who know the ropes, not 20 something lawyers, CNN/FOX talking heads, interns, and other self-styled terrorism and security experts. We have the goods right here and just piddle it away.....
-
11515
As an old, retired ex-civil servant, I don't travel as much as most people do these days. However, I do read the newspapers, magazines, etc., and have noticed that there has been only (1)ATTEMPTED bombing of an aircraft via shoe bomb. Meanwhile, check out the numerous incidents using planes (9/11), cars, suicidal Islamic fanatics, all directed at mass transit. Yet the airplane scare consumes most of the TSA's time and money! Great thought; Let's expand the TSA w/good tech devices to monitor the major cities' subways, ferries, etc. They could coordinate w/local police, thus saving the cops for actual incidents. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know of ANY bombing incidents here or abroad that were STOPPED by submachine gun toting SWAT personnel. Perhaps technology, combined w/commonsense might help?
-
11494
This politically correct nonsense has to stop, before more Americans are killed by fascist Islamic extremist terrorists. Danes, Swedes, Japanese, Chileans, Botswanans, or Eskimos didn't fly the planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, and neither did elderly men and women, infants, or any of the others currently being subjected to random searches so as not to offend anyone. What good is it to randomly search every 5th or 10th person, if that person is a grandmother, while the 7th person in line is a young Middle Eastern male carrying a backpack, who is let through unchallenged so as to avoid "racial profiling"? This is not only a waste of police time and resources, but insane! Race is only one of the factors that can and should be taken into account when deciding whom to search. Other factors should also be considered when developing a suspect profile, including age, ethnicity, national origin, appearance (sweaty or nervous), etc. Profiling is an effective law enforcement tool, when used properly. Don't handcuff our law enforcement authorities, who have a hard enough time trying to protect us from those seeking to destroy us!
-
11492
Fact One: The screening measures are messed up.
Fact Two: Targeting Middle Eastern Males 17-40 won't solve the problem. Watch the 1962 film "Battle for Algiers" documenting the French battle against Algerian revolutionaries. The terrorists put bombs in young females' purses and packages. The females passed through screeners by cutting their hair and dressing-up in Western attire.
Fact Three: Government workers get hard searched more than the general public.
Fact Four: If Richard Reid had placed a bomb in his jock-strap instead of his shoe, airport screening lines would be a whole lot more inconvenient.
-
11488
Dave--
Would you favor the strip searching of all white men between 18 and 40 (you know, like Eric Rudolph) trying to enter Centennial Olympic Park here in Atlanta? Or driving rental trucks near federal office buildings? Didn't think so
-
11480
Searches should be done only when there is reasonable cause. If you are white, female, over 65 and working for the Defense department and are traveling under orders paid by DOD it should not be necessary to spread eagle, legs (wearing a skirt) and arms without shoes (when it's hard to walk (visible scares from surgery)), not to mention what you can pick up after everyone else is walking barefoot before you). I think our rights of privacy are being violated by unreasonable searches. What does our constitution say...
-
11479
I agree that TSA needs to forget the pc criteria & follow the British example; search the obvious groups (Middle Eastern males) & leave the white-haired grandmothers alone!
-
11475
I'm fairly certain that Timothy McVeigh was not of Arab descent. Racial profiling is inherently dangerous and only occasionally pragmatic.
DSR
-
11473
What would make the lines move faster is the strip searching of those people of mid-eastern and arab descent. Leave the old people, those in wheel chairs, the black and white people alone and target those who are known to fit the profile. Read DHS's and TSA's own data. The target group is those of Mid-east and Arab descent 17-40+ years old. How hard is that to figure out? The rest of us do not fit the terrorist profile.
PROMO RIGHT: EVENTS
UPCOMING WEBINARS
NOVEMBER 18
Speed bumps for Teleworking: What are they and how to avoid them?
DECEMBER 3
Achieve Program Success: Unlock the Management Information in Your Data
DECEMBER 10
Practical Transparency: Applying Exchange Networks for Mission Results
PROMO RIGHT: DIRECTORIES
Post a Comment
To post a comment, you must provide a name and a valid e-mail address. Messages must be limited to 400 words. By using this Service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable. Although Government Executive does not monitor comments posted to this site (and has no obligation to), it reserves the right to delete, edit, or move any material that it deems to be in violation of this rule.