According to Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge, “I’ve got to tell you . . . I don’t think random checks enhance security very much at airports. “ Great. Thanks for that analysis. It makes the last several months of traveling feel so much better.
Ridge, though, is pushing a plan to let frequent fliers (about 20% of all fliers fly half the miles in the US) register in some sort of security database, submit to background checks … and fast-track their way past security.
Where can I start in listing the problems with this?
Ridge notes, with some justification, that picking 85-year-old grandmothers out of the line for frisking is probably not terribly productive. But that’s an extreme example. The alternative is to try to pick folks who “look suspicious” — which is going to inevitably lead to (a) racial/ethnic profiling (which may be understandable, but is hardly fair), and (b) letting people through who didn’t “look suspicious” but who were really mad-dog whackos.
There may be a better way to deal with airport security than we are presently doing. But this proposal isn’t it.