Safety versus the illusion of safety

In 1755 Benjamin Franklin penned the now well-known quote (which is strangely, often misquoted): “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety [capitalization of Liberty and Safety seen in context]”.

Today, like many times before, I flew domestically within the United States, and as such necessarily passed through a TSA checkpoint. As always, it was an interesting experience.

First off, I was selected for my hands to be tested for traces of precursors to explosives. This is the first time that this has ever happened to me, and I was quite curious to see if I’d fail or not. I passed. Why might I have failed? Well, being a graduate student in the sciences, I’m frequently in contact with various laboratory chemicals, and I have a pretty good idea what kind of trace might have been on my hands. Given that, I’m also pretty sure that I should have failed the screening. Might this be a case of trading liberty for safety, or worse yet, the illusion of safety?

I’ve always been aware of the possibility of failing that particular screening before, and from others who it’s happened to, it turns out to not be a very big deal. You get subjected to some additional screening, and so long as nothing is awry and you’re perfectly compliant, you’re sent on your way. You’d never know this from the TSA website, though. Take for example, this post http://blog.tsa.gov/2010/02/what-happens-if-my-hands-alarm-during.html on the TSA’s blog that features the very question being posed here, which is, what happens if I fail? You’ll notice that throughout the entire post, the question is never answered. The question of refusing to be tested is answered, but actually failing? Nope. This is noted in the comments, and of course there hasn’t been any actual reply from the TSA at all.

Next comes the boarding pass and identification check. This is completely unremarkable, other than the fact that depending on the airport you’re flying out of, some will ask you questions such as your name (and other questions in other airports) every single time, obviously as part of the screening process. At certain airports, however no questions are ever asked. Why isn’t this standardized if it helps security? Why aren’t the questions randomized, too? After all, the questions are always exactly the same at each airport. Am I flying out of [insert airport here]? Well then, I better know when I was born as per my ID. Again, the lack of real thought and standardization again reinforces the question in the back of your mind… is this security, or is it security theater?

Then comes putting your items into bins so that they can be x-rayed… If you’re flying with an iPad, can it remain in its case, or does it need to be put in a separate bin and not inside of a case like a laptop does? The TSA website says one thing, but that is irrelevant. Do your shoes need to go directly on the belt, or can they go in a bin? What’s the current policy as per the website? Also irrelevant. The reason the policy is irrelevant is because if you ever mention such a thing, the TSO in question will almost certainly just tell you that the website is out of date, and that they’re correct. Run into an issue? Just pretend like you’re some dumb, ignorant, compliant person that’s so grateful to be informed of what’s correct, and you won’t run into problems.

Having my items x-rayed this time was mildly eventful. I “learned” that in addition to having to have my laptop outside of its case and in a separate bin with nothing else in it, that my laptop case (as it is a sleeve) also needs to be placed in that bin now, apparently. Also, it can’t be placed just anywhere, mind you; it must be placed on top of the laptop. Anywhere else is unacceptable. Don’t bother looking for any of this “new” stuff on the TSA website, though.

I also learned that I don’t need to put my shoes directly on the belt anymore. This is of course correct, but the last time I flew out of the exact same airport (and the policy is still bin or belt is fine, as it was then, and has been for a very long time), I was verbally chastised for putting my shoes in a bin. Do the TSA screeners not even know what rules they’re supposed to be enforcing? Do they not pay attention to rule updates, and do they randomly make stuff up as they go along? This is the case with at least some screeners.

On the other side of the x-ray machines, while my stuff was going through, someone screamed at the top of their lungs “WHO THE FUCK BROUGHT THE METAL LAPTOP?”, as if a laptop that has an aluminum body (like many) is prohibited (it’s not, and never has been). The person with the metal laptop was presumably me. I didn’t say a word, because another TSO immediately corrected the first with “[Name], metal laptops are OK”. At which point, the person pretended to have never asked screamed the question. This raises an interesting question, though, why did this person think metal-bodied laptops weren’t OK, and if they’ve apparently never seen one before, how much training and experience does one need to independently operate the x-ray machine?

Anyone can look at various tests of the effectiveness of the TSA, and criticism of their failure to implement various screening measures. For example, all passenger luggage isn’t even searched yet, despite this being a supposed top priority of the TSA. This is public knowledge. Their failure rate when tested is abysmal, too. Heck, even the simple measure of "Do TSO's know what the regulations they're enforcing are" is almost certainly not one that's overwhelmingly in favor of TSA competence.

It seems fairly obvious to me that the TSA isn’t about security, it’s about security theater; this thought is fairly scary, and at the same time it’s a bit outrageous. Trading unessential liberty (and depending on your interpretation of the 4^th amendment, essential liberty) for temporary safety is one thing, but trading unessential liberty for a poorly constructed illusion of temporary safety is something that I’ll pass on any day.