I’m no stranger to airports and I have been on more than my fair share of planes. Flying is something that I never minded doing because I love to travel. That being said, the increasing security measures are making in things more difficult and inconvenient. After 9/11 I realize that we had to tighten our belts and I am all for that I feel that my rights can be slightly compromised for the good or the people. I don’t mind standing in line in my socks waiting to go through the metal detector or the occasional puff test. What I do mind though is the profiling and the lack there of. If someone looks suspicious then take the time to look a little closer and wave the magic wand over them. Don’t ignore them and pull the senior citizen going on a family vacation out of place and interrogate her because you’re afraid of discrimination (this happened to my grandmother on our way to Disneyworld.)
At this point in time you are probably wondering where this post is going, which is completely logical. I got stuck on this topic after reading an article on FOX news about New Full Body Scans being inserted into airport security. This latest installment is part of President Obama’s plan to improve safety measures. At first glance this is a really good idea but after some thought there are some serious flaws. Obama’s administration doled out $25 million dollars for 150 of these fancy scanners that supposedly show objects hidden on the body. Each of them cost a pretty penny so major airports will only be receiving a few till they can find money to fund the hundreds more then are planning.
As with all things though there is a catch. The first one is that it looks like only international airports will be receiving them for a while. Add to this that since international airports bring in people from other countries surveillance there is no guarantee that weapons will go undetected. These people are already inside the secure area and won’t pass through the new machines. The second is that experts agree that they will not pick up everything and are only moderately effective. A good example is the Nigerian man who had explosives hidden in his underwear, the new scanners would have missed them too. The third point is that they aren’t really crowd effective. How are you supposed to send hundreds to thousands of people daily through machines that aren’t real speedy? The thing is, you don’t. More likely this will just end up as profiling issue. Even the Americans Civil Liberties Union has denounced this program and they compare it to a virtual strip search – marking every person who walks through one.
I’m all about security because I sure don’t want my plane to blow up but I’m also realistic enough to question whether we are doing this whole security thing effectively.