InstaPundit, via readers Scott Stafford and Don MacGregor, proposes a fun “game” to enhance airline security.
The government gives batons [smallish, coded, metal object in a variety of different shapes] to the public for a deposit of $100 each. If the passengers smuggle it onto the plane, the airline pays a reward of $500. If the airline catches the smugglers, they confiscate the baton and return it to the government to claim the $100 deposit.
This can have other benefits. Humans are notoriously bad at what human factors specialists call “vigilance tasks”, watching and waiting for infrequent events to occur. As it stands now the people running the xray machines will probably never see a real weapon smuggled through, which decreases their attention to the task. Just as in dog training, you need a periodic “reward” to keep them interested, and profit-seeking passengers would tend to liven up their day.
Intelligent airlines could also give the $100 deposit to the security personel who find a baton. This would give them an economic incentive to pay attention.
That makes passengers interested in observing airport security, security personnel interested in enforcing airport security, and airlines really interested in airport security.