"Airport security exceptions and subjectivity: What a crock"

Friday, October 20, 2006

Blog - Between the Lines
Airport security exceptions and subjectivity: What a crock
Posted by David Berlind
ZDNet


This week, for the Computer History Museum's fellow awards, I made a quick
trip to California that took me from Boston's Logan Airport to San Francisco
International Airport and back again in under two days. For me, it was the
first time I had liquids or gels in my bags since the TSA's new liquid/gel
rule went into effect. If you're not aware of the rule, it's pretty straight
forward. Liquids and gels cannot be in containers any bigger than 3 ounces
and all of your liquid/gel items must be in a single 1 quart zip-top bag
(nice little regulation for the Glad Bag people). According to the TSA's Web
site:

TSA and our partners conducted extensive explosives testing since August 10
and determined that these items, in limited quantities, are safe to bring
aboard an aircraft. The one bag limit per traveler limits the total amount
each traveler can bring.  Consolidating the bottles into one bag and
X-raying separately enables security officers to examine the declared items.
By reducing clutter in the carry-on bag, security officers can more easily
find prohibited items within the bag.

Just to be clear, this means that if you fill a 1 quart bag with as many
liquid or gel containers as possible, the TSA is 100 percent confident that
the total volume of the contents of those containers would not be enough to
cause a problem if it was some sort of explosive material. I'm by no means
an expert on exploding liquids and how much of such a liquid is too much,
but it seems to me as though a clever terrorist (or three or four) can find
a way to get whatever volume of an exploding liquid they want onto an
airplane. Precedent suggests that the bad guys know how to put more than one
of themselves onto the same jet. Not only is it an idiotic rule, it's not
being universally enforced in the same way at all airports which is even
more enraging to me as a business traveler. My personal account serves as an
example.

On Tuesday morning, just before going through the security line at Boston's
Logan Airport, I realized I had a big tube of toothpaste. There was a guy
sitting at a desk just outside the security area who pre-inspects liquids
and gels to make sure you're going to make it through security with whatever
liquids/gels that you have on your person. I pulled out the big tube of
toothpaste and he said he doubted whether they'd let me through but that,
since it was my only item containing a gel or liquid, that I should attempt
to pass it through the x-ray machine separately and maybe I'd get a stroke
of luck. Minutes later, the x-ray people flagged the toothpaste and gave me
the option of sending it to myself in the mail or tossing it (but strangely,
not before asking me where I was traveling to as if that mattered). They
tossed it. Into the garbage can that was right there by the x-ray machine
(interesting place to throw something that they won't let onto an airplane
for fear it might explode).

The new TSA rule was explained to me. Six hours later, I arrived in San
Francisco and I wasn't going to have a whole lot of time to buy new
toothpaste or even a zip top bag to bring it home with me for that matter.
It occurred to me that there's no easy way for business travelers to
purchase zip top bags one at a time anyway. Or, maybe they're hanging on an
end-cap in the airport store for some ridiculous price. It seems to me that
if the TSA is going to make a rule like this, it's also obligated to
conveniently locate 1 quart zip-top bag dispensers in all airports. I'd pay
25 cents or maybe even $1 if it meant not having to throw out a collection
of items that would cost $1 or more to replace (do the math, it works). But
at either of those costs, bear in mind that the price range of a typical
125-bag box of 1 quart zip-top bags at the grocery store would be $26 to
$125.  

<Short worthwhile digression with tech angle> On Tuesday night, after the
Computer History Museum's 2006 Fellow Awards, I stayed at the Holiday Inn
Express by San Francisco International. A good trick if you're a business
traveler and you know you need sleep is to strategically pick a hotel near
the airport so you can wake up as late as possible and still make your
flight. I even turn my rental car in the night before and use the shuttle
buses so that I don't have to worry about it in the morning.  I normally
don't recommend places to stay or take the time out to comment on good
customer service. But the woman at the desk provided me with better customer
service than I've received at any hotel, ever (If any of you Holiday Inn
execs are reading this, I think her name was Ellfie). She asked me if it was
my first time staying with them and when I said yes, she handed me a huge
bag of goodies that included two 1.75 oz tubes of toothpaste. Talk about
serendipity striking! It also had tiny little single-serving containers of
hand-creams, vitamins, and Advil. Wow. At a Holiday Inn? Oh, and wait,
there's more (here's the technology angle).  The entire Holiday Inn is
blanketed with free Wi-Fi. Within moments of getting to my room, the phone
rang. It was Ellfie checking up on me to make sure everything was OK with my
room. This has never happened to me before at any hotel (and I've stayed at
the best of them) and it was happening at a Holiday Inn? I will be back.
</Short worthwhile digression with tech angle> 

If you read any of the digression, then you know that I picked up some free
toothpaste and other liquid/gels during my hotel stay on Tuesday night. But
not a free 1 quart zip top bag (hint to hotels). At approximately 7:40 AM
(for any TSA personnel that want to review the security tapes), I went
through airport security at SFO's Terminal 3 (heading for gate 88) and as I
approached the x-ray area, I pulled out the two tiny tubes of toothpaste and
two hermetically sealed  containers of hand creme and asked if it was OK to
take them on the plane. I didn't have a 1 quart bag. The answer was no and I
was again given the choice of stepping out of line to send them to myself
via mail, or throwing them out. I asked "what if I just take one of the
little tubes of toothpaste and throw out the rest?"  Still, the answer was
no. 

The woman behind me however did have a zip top bag for her gels and liquids:
a 1 gallon one that was packed full with an entire bathroom cabinet's worth
of gels and liquids (what on earth?, I thought. but that's another story).
She apologized for having the wrong-sized bag and then asked the TSA agent
if he could cut her some slack. It was passed through the x-ray machine and
this is when the TSA agent on the other end of the conveyer belt picked up
the bag  and held it up to the light, visually scanning its contents but
never once opening the bag. She handed back to the happy passenger who
proceeded to her gate. 

I shook my head in disbelief. What a crock.

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