Air Travelers In for Changes Over Holidays

[Capitalist Pig]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120201867.html

Air travelers planning to take off for the holiday season will face a string of new security procedures and find that old rules no longer apply. Even travelers who do not set off walk-through metal detectors will occasionally be pulled aside for pat-downs as part of changes that go into effect Dec. 22. A new procedure calls for screeners to routinely touch passengers in the mid-thigh area and arms -- not just their torsos. Security officers, newly trained in "behavior recognition" screening, will scan the crowds for travelers who appear to be nervous and will pull them aside for extra scrutiny. The Transportation Security Administration yesterday announced those and other security measures as part of a new strategy designed to be less predictable to potential terrorists as well as frequent travelers. The changes are the biggest shift in airport security since the agency was created after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Has federalizing airport security made us any safer? Or should we long for privatized security?

[Matt W]

Airports are points of entry into a country. Therefore they should be run by the central government. Private companies running security really doesn't instil me with any kind of confidence.

[Nono]

Quote by: CP Should we long for privatized security?

These "security officers", are you suggesting they're staff of the federal government?
Who signs their pay cheques?
Am I wrong in believing that private security is actually what you had on 911, i.e. outsourced, i.e. the work done by the firm that offered the lowest price or paid the biggest bribe?
In other words, your safety in the hands of people earning minimum wage? That is privatized security. Or am I wrong?

[RickSp]

Quote by: Matt W Airports are points of entry into a country. Therefore they should be run by the central government. Private companies running security really doesn't instil me with any kind of confidence.

The Federal government contracts out most of its facilities security to private firms. Virtually every governemnt builing you enter there will be private security firms.

The problem was that the old system was horribly managed by the Feds. Using Federal employees now just maximizes the bureaucracy and the cost and does nothing for security.

[jose]

And they make you pay for it too sometimes my ticket costs less than the security handling charge thats added on

[tman_ndsu08]

Quote by: Capitalist Pig http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120201867.html Has federalizing airport security made us any safer? Or should we long for privatized security?

I don't think private security would be any less painful for the everyday traveler.

Obviously they would be more efficient than a government run service, but the gist of the article seemed to be saying how much of a pain in the ass it is going to be to fly during the holiday.

[Autolykos]

Quote by: Matt W Airports are points of entry into a country. Therefore they should be run by the central government. Private companies running security really doesn't instil me with any kind of confidence.

The only reason a central government would want to run airports is if they are persuing policies in other parts of the world that create victims who want to go and kill members of that government for what they have done. So the solution is for the government to not persue such policies (i.e. foreign non-intervention).

- Rob