Transportation Security Administration in Defense of the National Aviation Infrastructure

摘要

Please remove your shoes and place them in the bin. All laptops must be removed from their cases. Place all coats, jackets and sweaters in the bins along with any metal objects including cell phones, keys, jewelry and watches. Be sure to hold onto your boarding pass and a government issued ID.' We have heard it dozens of times and can probably all repeat it by heart, but does it really make us safer. Just one look at the seven-mile stare of the Transportation Security Officer (TSO) behind the x-ray machine display and one wonders how these individuals keep their sanity after watching hundreds of images flash before their eyes every hour. Meanwhile, small squads of TSOs do nothing more than constantly shuffle empty bins from one end of the security checkpoint to the other. The only person who appears dutifully focused stands just on the opposite side of the magnetometer as the last hurdle before entering into America's airport transportation network. These officers are the front-line defense against terrorism and crime at our nation's airports. All the while, air travelers inadvertently attempt to subvert their process by demanding faster processing lines and less intrusive security measures. The TSA faces two dialectically opposing challenges; speed up the security screening process, but provide a safer, more comprehensive search. The TSA now claims that 83% of passengers only wait 10 minutes or less to enter the security checkpoint area. Once cleared to pass into the checkpoint screening area most passengers exit in less than three minutes. This means TSOs have less than 15 minutes to identify and stop a criminal or terrorist from boarding an aircraft within the United States. The TSA boasts fielding state of the art x-ray machines, body imaging technology and explosive trace detection systems which cost the US taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars.