Reason Foundation

Search Reason

December 10, 2010

Only 400 of 2,200 Body Scanners Are In Place at Airports So Outrage at TSA Likely to Grow as More Are Installed

Robert Poole

First of all, there are only 400 body scan machines in place and operating at U.S. airports. There are 2,200 screening lanes at 450 airports, and unless Congress forces a change in policy, all of those lanes will get body-scanners�but not until the end of next year. So even if every adult citizen in the CBS poll had taken one flight recently, he or she would have had an 82 percent chance of going through a lane without a body-scan machine. It�s easy to tell a pollster the politically correct answer if you�ve never actually encountered the new screening procedure. But as more scanners are installed and people are forced to choose between body scans and pat-downs, the public is likely to become more infuriated with the TSA.

Getting TSA Out of Passenger Screening

TSA shouldn�t be both the provider of airport screening and the regulator of all aspects of aviation security. TSA regulates itself and has hidden its mistakes in the past. It suppressed a report in 2007 showing that private security companies were at least as effective as TSA screeners and that if more careful accounting were done, were probably less costly, too. TSA never released that report, but the Government Accountability Office blew the whistle on TSA�s attempted coverup. In Europe, regulators require each airport to be responsible for its security, and those airports are free to hire government-licensed security firms to carry out screening�which is the pattern in nearly every Western European country. In Canada, the government created an airport security agency following 9/11, but empowered it to contract with private security firms to do all airport screening in Canada. The United States is the only Western country that combines aviation security regulation and airport screening in the same entity. Rep. John Mica (R-FL) was the Aviation Subcommittee chairman back in 2001 and voted to create the TSA, like nearly every other member of Congress not named Ron Paul. But Mica also wisely created a provision that allowed airports to opt-out of the TSA and use private screeners instead. He is strongly encouraging airports to opt-out of the TSA now. In January, Congressman Mica will chair the House Transportation Committee and if his fellow Republicans are truly committed to smaller government then they can start radically reforming the incompetent, privacy-invading TSA monster they helped create.

Get the Government Out of Our Pants

Has the Transportation Security Administration finally gone too far?

Steve Chapman

When it comes to protecting against terrorism, this is how things usually go: A danger presents itself. The federal government responds with new rules that erode privacy, treat innocent people as suspicious, and blur the distinction between life in a free society and life in a correctional facility. And we all tamely accept the new intrusions, like sheep being shorn.

Maybe not this time.

Brian Aitken's Mistake

A New Jersey man gets seven years for being a responsible gun owner.

Radley Balko

Sue Aitken called the police because she was worried about her son, Brian. She now lives with the guilt of knowing that her phone call is the reason Brian spent his 27th birthday in a New Jersey prison last month. If the state gets its way, he will be there for the next seven years.