Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Ideas for fixing airport security
Last week Slate held a contest calling for the best ideas to improve airport security. Yesterday, the site announced the winning entries as chosen by a panel of security experts. Among the winners:
-
In third place, Marianne Nassef suggests prohibiting those on the No-Fly list from purchasing airline tickets. "Nothing gets denied faster than a credit card," she says. Of course, this idea faces the "false positive" problem that has presented itself repeatedly with the No-Fly list, with children and other innocents ending up on the list. And as Slate notes, "[T]he bad guys are likely to catch on and work around the system..."
-
In second place, Neil Stelzner and Phil Nettl call for using FBI trainees at airport security, which would introduce bona fide law enforcement personnel to the airport security process.
-
In first place, Benton Love suggests what any Econ 101 student knows: Incentives matter. Under this plan, undercover federal agents would constantly test TSA agents by trying to sneak bombs and other contraband by them. Screeners would be paid a bonus for each prohibited item they detected, and docked for every similar item that passed. This would give screeners a major incentive to keep a careful watch at all times.
Slate is forwarding the winning ideas to the White House, the TSA, and Congress. More here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alan Jul 23rd 2010 11:02AM
Airport security should work more like an assembly line, where the passengers stand on a moving sidewalk while they take off their shoes and metal objects etc. Make it long enough so that the passengers have plenty of time to sort everything out before they get to the metal detector, and maybe add a moving table-height belt beside the sidewalk for their carry on bags. That way, passengers can stand in place while they do all that stuff, yet continue to move forward and make room for incoming passengers!