Transportation Security Administration embarrassment seems to have peaked of late. The latest
couple of episodes: the video-recorded pat down of a six-year-old girl at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Apr. 5 and, according to CNN, the June 18 pat down of a 95-year-old woman and removal of her adult diaper.
In response to the latter, TSA said its agents “work with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner,” adding that officers in Destin-Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., where the incident occurred, behaved “professionally.”
The flap was reminiscent of something this Cheapflights reporter saw in Honolulu a few years back. A frail, obviously-frightened wheelchair-bound woman was lifted from her wheelchair and patted down at the gate – subjected to secondary screening. Her fellow passengers were aghast.
People are irate this sort of stuff goes on with–until recently–no apparent end in sight.
In the wake of the pat down of the young girl, there was a rash of reports that TSA was changing procedures. Not so fast. Cheapflights has found that any new rules are very much a work in progress at this point, and that no new hard and fast procedures have yet to replace the present approach. They may be the way. But they’re not here yet.
TSA is aware there are problems. In a recent speech the agency’s administrator, John J. Pistole, said “We have undertaken our own review of all procedures. Last fall I directed the agency to explore ways to develop a strategy for truly risk-based security.”
The problem with truly risk-based procedures is how to implement them without running afoul of civil liberties, without profiling certain groups – like young Arab males. That’s the persistent dilemma facing TSA and Homeland Security. And they don’t seem to have figured it out yet.
Among the things Pistole says TSA will be examining are:
- What procedures and technology the agency employs.
- How certain procedures are carried out.
- How certain segments of population can be screened.
Pistole insists, “We are truly looking at every aspect of what we do, and, even beyond assessing what we already do, we are exploring things we could do. One specific thing we’re considering is developing ways to conduct more identity-based screening.”
Most TSA personnel I encounter are courteous and professional. But they’re constrained by the procedures under which they operate. That’s where the changes have to be made.
Pistole contends his agency is making “good progress” toward what he refers to as “a long-term security construct that we hope could eventually change the flying experience for most passengers.”
Don’t expect a quick fix however. Pistole says, “many of these changes are still being developed and are not quite ready to be roiled out fully.”
Some remain skeptical. Pistole’s statement brings to mind an interview I conducted several years back with TSA’s then technology chief. He said, in effect, that so-called “don’t-break-stride” security lanes weren’t all that far away, the kind of lanes where you don’t have to shed your shoes. They’re still not operational.
Still, Administrator Pistole contends, “[In] the coming months we expect to be ready to move forward with some smaller concrete steps that will begin to move us away from what can seem like a one-size-fits-all approach.”
The six-year-old girl and the 95-year-old-woman would probably appreciate that.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: zieak)
