Are TSA-style security procedures necessary, or are they just theater?

Ladies and gentlemen, a seat has just opened up on our secure flight. Please don't all rush security at once.

Mostly theater, but some is necessary and it's not that egregious. Right after 9/11 security was really bottlenecked, but by now it's fairly smooth, people are used to it and budget their time for it, and it's not that horrible. Flight delays due to weather and mechanical problems are a much more common aggravation than the every now and then when security is backed up.

I fly international a lot to the "third world". The immigration/customs procedure everywhere is so much better than it used to be, although there are still frustrations and delays, and coming into the US is awesomely efficient. There are always people griping about being in line through US immigration, but I always marvel at how fast and efficient it is.

now that we are all stuck in big lines going through security, why dont the terrorist set off a bomb there? You'd kill more people and you would get them BEFORE that super security from TSA

12:11 wrote:

Are TSA-style security procedures necessary, or are they just theater?

How many terrorist has the TSA caught by this enhanced screening in more than 10 years? Answer: Zero - If you think they caught someone before they got on the plane, give me a name. There is none. The whole thing is experiment to see who much we will let the government violate our rights before we resist. So far, there is no limit to the intrusions into our privacy and we just submit to it.

They definitely work. One time I had 6 ounces of shampoo and they caught me.

sub3over40 wrote:

12:11 wrote:

Are TSA-style security procedures necessary, or are they just theater?

How many terrorist has the TSA caught by this enhanced screening in more than 10 years? Answer: Zero - If you think they caught someone before they got on the plane, give me a name. There is none. The whole thing is experiment to see who much we will let the government violate our rights before we resist. So far, there is no limit to the intrusions into our privacy and we just submit to it.

Perhaps the mere presence of TSA scared the terrorists away?

I agree, once they started doing the TSA security checks at our local theater I decided I know longer needed to go out to watch movies. I now just go with on-demand fare. Does anybody know why they began these security practices in theaters? I have it on good authority that the TSA security scans will soon be implemented in grocery stores. What is this nation becoming? I am thankful that Trump will soon be elected and will change this nonsense.

TRUMP!!!TRUMP!!!TRUMP!!!

just another guy wrote:

I agree, once they started doing the TSA security checks at our local theater I decided I know longer needed to go out to watch movies. I now just go with on-demand fare. Does anybody know why they began these security practices in theaters? I have it on good authority that the TSA security scans will soon be implemented in grocery stores. What is this nation becoming? I am thankful that Trump will soon be elected and will change this nonsense.

TRUMP!!!TRUMP!!!TRUMP!!!

lol

The biggest inefficiency is the passengers themselves. It's amazing how many people can't be bothered to even read the stated rules ahead of time. I fly a lot, and I'm amazed how many still try to bring large bottles of liquid....hello.

The worst time suck though is the morons who grab their stuff right as it exists the x-ray and then stand there putting it all back on. This stops the conveyor because they haven't removed their bins from the belt, and the guy running it has to slow it down. Of course, 10 or 20 feet away there are benches and tables for people to move to where they can put their shoes, belts, whatever on. But no, stand right there and hold everyone else up..

I asked a TSA agent why they didn't tell these morons to pick up their bin, walk it out of the area, sit down, etc and he said they couldn't yell at people, but he encouraged me to yell at them. Great!

My brother in law is a TSA employee and he is a complete and total waste of space. Based on the fact that he is an employee of the TSA staff I have absolutely no faith in their ability to provide any protection. It is just another example of government welfare for the societal idiots among us.

Necessity presupposes some objective. TSA is not necessary for flight safety, but police state programs like it are necessary for tyrannical government.

Sorry we inconvenienced you for a whole extra 30 seconds.

I don't mind turning off my phone that much, but it's certainly as much theater as the TSA screening stuff. If there was any chance greater than 0% that electronics would interfere with flights, they would ban them altogether. If you take your .01% chance (0.0001) and multiply it by the number of commercial flights per year in the US alone (~10,423,000), then that means over 1,000 flights per year in the US would suffer critical system interference due to electronic devices. I don't think so. Theater!

snananan wrote:

Bullet the Blue Sky wrote:

This 1000x!

And can I get an amen on cell phones in airplane mode. If having your phone NOT in airplane mode was a legit threat to the operation of a flight, they would never let you take them on board, let alone turn them on during the flight. We're talking about an agency that banned nail clippers at one point. So please spare us the theater of asking to turn off our electronic devices!

If there was a .01% chance an electronic device could interfere with a critical function, is it such a bad thing to ask for people to turn off their devices?

snananan wrote:

If there was a .01% chance an electronic device could interfere with a critical function, is it such a bad thing to ask for people to turn off their devices?

If there were a .01% chance an electronic device could interfere with a critical function, then it would happen multiple times a day.

Blind Lemon Chicken wrote:

I once heard an interesting scenario suggested. Have two planes for each scheduled flight. To get on the first one, you go through typical security. To get on the second, you only need a ticket.

Are you getting on the plane where everyone and their luggage has been screened, or the one with no checks?

I'm absolutely getting on the one with no checks. It's still far, far, far safer than the cab to the airport.

BigDuh wrote:

now that we are all stuck in big lines going through security, why dont the terrorist set off a bomb there? You'd kill more people and you would get them BEFORE that super security from TSA

This is exactly right. As the Paris attacks demonstrate, there are always places where you can kill a lot of people.

The Nairobi mall and Mumbai hotel massacres are other examples, in addition to several train bombings in Europe.