TSA Adopts Another Dim-Witted New Policy

While being wanded at Hartford yesterday, I discovered that the TSA is apparently adopting another policy designed primarily to inconvenience passengers. The agent asked me to take off my wristwatch. When I said that was a new one, he said it was standard operating policy. When I suggested that it couldn't be because it never happened to me anywhere else in the country, including the trip to Hartford from DFW, he called over a supervisor, who put both my watch and my wallet back through the machine -- a slight penalty for the temerity of inquiring about a new policy. After my wanding was completed, she talked to the agent and then explained to me that it was a new policy that would be implemented in a few weeks, and that they were selectively practicing the new policy at this time. If this is correct, expect to take your wristwatches off every time you go through security.

This raises again the basic question why TSA insists on a uniform search policy matter no matter how unlikely a person is to be a security risk. Because of my knee replacement, I get wanded as a 70-year-old white-haired guy every time I go through security, just as thoroughly as a swarthy 25-year-old swarthy Mediterranean type. What a waste of time and money. My understanding is that Norm Mineta insisted on such uniform treatment, in part because of his background in a Japanese internment camp in World War II. However, he is long gone from DOT, and it is time to take another look at that policy. It is economically wasteful, and distracts agents from examining persons who would appear to be much more likely to be a terrorist. I am sure that there would be interest groups who would scream that any deviation from uniformity in search is discriminatory. However, in this instance, discrimination is entirely rational.