The futility of security theatre
Oh, the drama!
We have already seen how pointless (and malicious) the full-body scanners in our airports are. So far, it has been clearly shown that they wouldn’t have caught the “pants bomber” (which is why they were installed in the first place!); Muslims have protested and are therefore excused from going through them (er, hello?); people have been caught getting their jollies from looking at naked people and of course, accusations of potential child abuse are rampant.
How could you possibly beat that? It turns out that it’s easy:
A team of more than 3,000 “behaviour detection” officers hired to spot terrorists at US airports
The specially-trained officers patrol terminals monitoring passengers for suspicious body language and facial expressions.
Since 2006, the officers have been stationed at more than 160 airports across the US in order to provide a hidden measure of security.
3000 officers, 160 airports is roughly 20 per airport. And how many terrorists have they caught?
[The officers] have failed to catch a single person despite costing the taxpayer $200 million (£140 million) last year.
Maybe they were just unlucky? Maybe no terrorists actually travelled in that time?
But 16 people accused of being part of terrorist plots have passed through US airports undetected a total of 23 times since 2004.
Oh! But surely they caught somebody?
By 2008, around 160,000 people had been selected to be interviewed or given further pat downs based on the behaviour detection technique but less than one per cent of those were arrested.
$200,000,000 to arrest 1700 people, apparently. Any none of them were the terrorists they were actually looking for, even though the terrorists had, in fact, gone through those airports. And really, there’s nothing to say that regular customs or passport control wouldn’t have nobbled them anyway. $117500 per arrest and a zero success rate on finding the people you’re actually looking for doesn’t sound like it’s worth having, really.
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1
May 21, 2010 at 17:01 -
Wow, 160 US airports manned by these officers!
The wise terrorist selects one of the remaining 19,660 airports!
19,820: Total number of airports of all types in the USA in 2004.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-09-26-airport-numbers_x.htm
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2
May 21, 2010 at 17:21 -
More security panto. Seeing as it’s our money, and therefore of no value at all, I guess this will just carry on.
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3
May 21, 2010 at 17:22 -
So when do we get a similar scheme?
Oh, hang on, Nu Liebour are no longer in gummint
So that’s ok then…. er, innit???
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4
May 21, 2010 at 17:24 -
If only the Israeli system were adopted – multiple checks and psychological profiling, bomb-proof rooms WITHIN the airport terminals for luggage inspection (so mass evacuation is unnecessary), etc. They have an unbeaten success rate and faster check-ins than many UK & USA airports.
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5
May 21, 2010 at 20:19 -
You are probably more than right about The Israelis. They know what they are looking for.
But surely, wouldn’t someone who refuses to be screened be more likely to be suspect?
If they don’t like it then they don’t have to fly.
Personally, I find it extremely difficult to imagine how anyone could get off on a screening shot, but then I’m not a pervert. Perhaps they do. Does it matter if lives are saved?
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6
May 22, 2010 at 08:36
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7
May 21, 2010 at 18:11 -
Ed, you mean adopt a system that already works? Without using expensive consultants to tell them what to do? Not creating a new system that doesnt do the job? Without recruiting loads of new seat warmers? Actually improving the system the passenger has to use?
Sorry, mate, don’t see how that would ever be approved.
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8
May 22, 2010 at 12:58 -
I would make the new scanners blast proof. The passenger would then be asked to walk through the scanner with all their baggage and if they were carrying anything dodgy then they would set off a small explosion. Enough to kill them but not enough to destroy the machine. A small team would then be deployed to wash down the machine quickly and efficiently for the next passenger. The cleaning teams could be failed asylum seekers, bankers or criminals in their last 6 months of sentence.
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