I don’t know about you, but airport security does not really make me feel secure. I am not hypersensitive about security, and think that some of our responses to September 11 was reasonable, while many were not.
Every time that I fly and see security make people throw away half empty 4oz tubes of toothpaste and 5oz bottles of antibacterial hand wash, I think what training and background do these people have in chemistry and explosive. Could not a group of “co-conspirators” take the “legally” allowed limit of liquids aboard for some nefarious purpose? Firearms and other weapons, okay.
My other issue with security is with “profiling” passengers and looking for strange behavior. Okay, some behavior is easily identifiable as strange or suspicious, such as talking to an imginary person while boxing air. What is security’s psychological and cultural training to identify the strange. My normal may be strange and suspicious to you and your strange and suspicious may seem normal to me.
This is also not a U.S. issue either. Security, here at home, as well as abroad, is woefully inconsistent on top of questionably competent security personnel. On serveral international trips, I accidentally put my over 3oz bottle of contact solution in our carry-on bag. Security in Europe and Africa missed the contact solution, but made us throw away a 6oz bottle of skin care lotion. [Very irritating as well as expensive. As an aside, one reason people don't like to check bags is because the airlines are always misplacing or losing them. Post for another day.]
I also have accidentally forgot to remove a small pocket knife. Believe me this knife could never be used as a weapon. It’s a small filmsy knife that I picked up at a trade show. Again, an example of the lack of throughness and inconsistency of airport security.
My largest issue is philosophical. In our hypersensitive mood over security, I am critical of both political parties over the way that they have addressed this issue. The Democrats, who first proposed the Department of Homeland Security — how easily we forget, want to protect and unionize airport employees. I have no problem paying people better wages, because the more you pay people the more you can demand and expect. You pay people poorly and you are almost assured to get poor quality work. You pay people well and you may get high quality work. My problem with the Democrats approach is that you end up with employees who are virtually tenured and difficult to fire. It’s bad for academia and elsewhere.
The Republican approach is just as bad. They are borderline paranoid about terrorism and see it everywhere. Much of this push is piece of mind. The focus on security measures, profiling, and risk levels does not make me feel particularly safer. Where is the training of secuity personnel and investment in equipment? What other measures should we be thinking about in terms of potential future attacks? Should a parallel focus be softer targets? Note, I said parallel, referring to maintain the focus on airline security.
I think that security is a real issue. I don’t feel all that secure given our current efforts, which I think is often guided by politics.
