TSA Follies

The following Letter to the Editor appeared in the Sunday, December 3,
2006 COLUMBUS DISPATCH. It relates to procedures at the Port Columbus
International Airport in Columbus Ohio (KCMH)

Agency doesn’t make air travelers feel safer
Sunday, December 03, 2006

During the Thanksgiving weekend travel rush, airline passengers were
forbidden to carry pies in their hand luggage. Transportation Security
Administration officers confiscated the pies from passengers and
distributed them to troops traveling during the holiday weekend.

If the pies were considered too dangerous to bring aboard airline
flights, how could it have been safe to distribute the pies to our armed
forces?

The TSA’s pie-redistribution plan showcases the often-absurd and
arbitrary rules that the flying public faces.

Now the fodder for Saturday Night Live sketches, the TSA’s baffling
rules and its inconsistent enforcement actually undermine the public’s
confidence in its effectiveness. If the agency is focusing on items,
like pie, that it tacitly admits are harmless, it could easily be
distracted from more-serious threats.

The pie incident does little to enhance the agency’s tarnished
reputation. Absurd rules about plastic bags, TSA officers barking
orders, needless and humiliating "secondary searches" and mishandled
bags have become commonplace hassles.

Although the agency often says that it cannot discuss its rules or
procedures for security reasons, we all need to challenge the TSA to a
closer, more-public review of its rules, procedures and the behavior of
its employees.