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Aiming to Balance Security, Convenience - Wall Street Journal

Posted on Friday, September 2, 2011 by destination tips travel

Ten years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. airport-security screening is still in flux, with complaints up, some travelers more outraged than ever and the Transportation Security Administration embarking on a major strategy shift.

TSA Administrator John Pistole promises the U.S. is finally moving toward smarter checkpoint security rather than treating everyone the same. This fall, the TSA will test a "trusted traveler'' program in Atlanta, Miami, Dallas and Detroit, with expedited screening for select frequent fliers of American and Delta airlines who are willing to turn over background information.

In addition, a pilot program is under way to reduce pat-downs of children, substituting measures such as explosive-detection hand swabs for friskings. And new software is being deployed that addresses privacy concerns and speeds up screening by displaying generic line drawings of body-scan images rather than revealing nudes.

"The whole idea is to try to continue to move away from one-size-fits-all'' screening, Mr. Pistole said in an interview. "We are doing this to try to improve the passenger experience without diminishing the layers of security we have.''

With the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks around the corner, airport security remains a touchy issue for travelers. Each attempted bombing over the past decade has brought a new screening regimen, layered on top of existing requirements. Shoes removed, laptops out, jackets off, liquids restricted, names exact and, most recently, bodies X-rayed or felt by hand all over. The airport is today the scene of some of our most humiliating experiences.

Complaints about TSA screening filed with the agency jumped 40% this year through June, compared with the first six months of 2010. In June alone, the TSA logged 1,975 screening complaints, more than double the 814 received in June 2010.

Mr. Pistole said he takes the concerns of the traveling public seriously, and that the TSA is still assessing what is behind the jump in complaints.

Pat-downs are among the most riling of procedures for travelers.

After radiation treatments in childhood, Kerry Ninneman avoids full-body-scan machines and opts for the pat-down. On a June trip leaving Denver International Airport, a TSA screener ran her hand up and around her body underneath her skirt.

"TSA has really taken it beyond what they should be doing,'' said Ms. Ninneman, who teaches graduate-level education courses.

Dave Simms also opts out of full-body screening and recently steeled himself for the aggressive pat-down at a Boston checkpoint by spreading his legs and raising his arms. A TSA agent told him to bend down and touch his toes. When Mr. Simms complied, the agent broke out laughing, Mr. Simms said.

"I laughed as well, but the incident serves as an example of how conditioned and submissive air travelers have become to TSA's totalitarianism,'' Mr. Simms said.

The U.S. Travel Association, a travel industry trade group, says its surveys show, on average, each person avoids two to three trips a year because of the hassles of airport-security screening. That amounts to an estimated $85 billion in lost business for hotels, restaurants, airlines and other travel suppliers. In addition, there is a huge loss of productivity from all the extra time wasted at airports because travelers have to arrive early, uncertain how long it will take to get through security.

"We put a man on the moon. We should be able to do this better,'' said Roger Dow, the association's president.

Mr. Dow's group put together a panel of travel and security experts that drafted a list of recommended improvements, including the kind of "trusted traveler'' program that TSA will test this fall. The key to improved security, experts contend, is to identify possible high-risk and very low-threat travelers before they get to the airport. This will allow agents to focus screening on the risky travelers while letting trusted ones through more efficiently.

"Data is what catches bad guys, not taking off your shoes,'' Mr. Dow said.

Mr. Pistole, a former FBI official, said he started asking questions about trusted-traveler programs when he took over at the TSA in July 2010 and saw several World War II veterans in their 80s get frisked at Washington's Reagan National Airport.

The pilot program launching this fall will take frequent-flier program data to study travel histories and incorporate some travelers who already have "trusted'' status with customs and immigration departments following government background checks for programs such as Global Entry. Trusted travelers will still be subject to random secondary screening, but will get dedicated lanes at airports where they can pass through security without all the restrictions currently in place, such as separate X-ray scanning for shoes and computers.

Over time, Mr. Pistole sees "more and more people becoming part of that known group.''

Amid widespread privacy concerns over revealing full-body scan images, the TSA is now deploying software that shows each person the same way—a line drawing, with rectangles shading any part of the body where an anomaly is detected. The monitors are placed in full view of traveler and screener, eliminating the need for an image operator in a separate room who radios other agents with scan results. The new software, available so far for only one of the two kinds of machines the TSA is using, will speed up the screening process, Mr. Pistole said.

Another change under consideration: Letting children keep their shoes on. This would help harried parents who already have their hands full. Small shoes are unlikely to have bombs hidden inside, Mr. Pistole said.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the many layers of security in the U.S. and coordination around the world have made flying safer, Mr. Pistole said.

But much of the effective change had little to do directly with the TSA, security experts say.

Jack Riley, director of the national security research division at the Rand Corp. think tank, argues that in the years after 9/11, air transportation has been an overwhelmingly secure means of transportation in the U.S. for three reasons: Passenger vigilance, secured cockpit doors and changes to the visa-approval process making it tougher for potential terrorists to enter the country.

Mr. Riley believes the TSA should apply a higher level of screening to people traveling to the U.S. than those already in the country. Not yet developing the means to reduce the inspection workload is "perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of the past decade," Mr. Riley wrote in a Rand book on the U.S response to 9/11.