Attn, DC Reasonoids: Come and Watch As Robert Poole Breaches Airport Security!
Airport Security: Time for a New Model
A discussion with the American Enterprise Institute, featuring a presentation by Robert W. Poole, Jr., Director of Transportation Studies, and Founder, Reason Foundation:
Start: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 2:00 PM
End: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 3:30 PMLocation: Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Congress ordered all but five commercial airports to switch from privately employed passenger screeners to a federal workforce operating under the auspices of the newly created Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Four years after the federal takeover, the TSA has been inundated with complaints and has been the subject of unfavorable evaluations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A recent GAO study found, for the first time, statistically significant evidence that private passenger screeners perform better than their federal counterparts. In light of this new finding—and the TSA's record of poor performance—Robert Poole, director of transportation at the Reason Foundation, has developed a new model for addressing the failing airport security apparatus. At this conference, Mr. Poole will present his model and a panel of experts will discuss his new approach.
Discussion with Jerry Ellig, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Amos Guiora, Case Western Reserve University
Moderated by Veronique de Rugy, AEI
Details and registration here.
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Which are the five lucky airports?
This weekend I flew out of an airport with three prop plane departures per day. When I got to the airport the door to security (and the gate) was propped open and nobody was watching. Once the four TSA agents and a police officer got there, they gave almost everybody secondary screening (i.e. a feel up). I had everything taken out of my bag and put through the x-ray machine separately. The TSA agents even took the time to open all the books in my bag. One old man stood too close to my bag, so he was forced to leave the gate and go through security again.
I guess I was one of the only people who saw the total lack of security, so the TSA must be doing its job: the other 19 people who went through security probably thought they were very safe.
Might be interesting to read an academic's perspective.
http://aem.cornell.edu/faculty_sites/gb78/wp/airport_security_022305.pdf
... his narrow focus upon the practical 'efficiency' of various airport passenger search schemes is NOT the issue.
Involuntary passenger searches are gross violations of the 4th Amendment.