©Karin Lau | Dreamstime.com
A pilot program that would make security screening at US airports faster and more dignified is being expanded across the country.
Don’t look now, but something strange and seldom seen may be coming one day to the security screening process at an American airport near you. It’s already appeared at seven airports around the country and it’s on its way to another 28.
It’s called sanity.
Your friends at the Transportation Security Administration (I’ll be alright as soon as I get this tongue out of my cheek) are experimenting with what they call an “expedited screening initiative,” open to US citizens only.
They call it “TSA Pre✓™. For reasons not disclosed on their Web site, the TSA apparently couldn’t bring themselves to write out the word “pre-check.”
This is how it works:
- You sign up
The program is purely voluntary — and so far, free of charge. Knowing the federal government as we know it, don’t expect that to last if this program becomes permanent. - You get screened
You will be interviewed by authorities, who will ask you questions and collect personal information on you that goes beyond the standard name, rank and credit card number. - You get the shortcut
Those who get the thumbs-up from the TSA will get a specially marked boarding pass from the airline and pass through an express line for a greatly abbreviated screening process. No taking off your jacket, your shoes and/or your belt. No need to take out your laptop or liquids, either. A barcode reader scans your boarding pass, you (presumably) pass through the metal detector and that’s it.
Sound good?
You can read more of the details of the program in this Associated Press story here.
The TSA started testing this system last year and claims to have screened more than 300,000 air travelers have already using this expedited methodology. So far, so good.
This being a federal program, there naturally are catches. This experimental process will be available only for a couple of airlines. Still, when you’re trying to create an airport security system that actually makes sense, you’ve got to start somewhere, right?
If you’re afraid that this expedited screening process might be so popular with the traveling public that too many folks would sign up for it and thereby defeat its very purpose, I can think of three reasons why that’s unlikely to happen:
- Non-US citizens are ineligible.
- Some folks won’t feel like going through the hassle of being screened.
- Others feel the federal government has too much information on them already and won’t be inclined to volunteer still more.
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