What’s the newest airport security tool? That’s right, a cheap, handheld black light. These are the same black lights that Disney and bars have had for several years.
Airport screeners are starting to use them this month to examine driver’s licenses and other passenger ID cards presented at checkpoints to spot forgeries or tampering. Passengers with suspicious documents can be questioned by police or immigration agents.
Black lights will help screeners inspect the ID cards by illuminating holograms, typically of government seals, that are found in licenses and passports. Screeners also are getting magnifying glasses that highlight tiny inscriptions found in borders of passports and other IDs. About 2,100 of each are going to the nation’s 800 airport checkpoints.
Great. Now we get to wait in longer lines while some screener spends far too much time examining the corners of licenses and passports.
“This is a significant security upgrade,” TSA chief Kip Hawley says. Screeners are trained in spotting forged documents and will get some training in studying suspicious passenger behavior to pick out people who merit deeper scrutiny at the checkpoint, Hawley says.
Airport security consultant Rich Roth says screeners will do a better job than security guards checking identification because they have training and “a little more authority” to question passengers.
I don’t know about you but I’m concerned about how much authority these screeners have over me. No one seems to want to state exactly what they can and can’t do.
We live in a society where everyone is now a suspect when traveling by plane. The 9/11 hijackers had valid IDs and would still be able to get valid IDs under the current system. This black light system is yet another band aid. The TSA isn’t really doing much to stop terrorism at all with their new black lights. It appears that it is designed more for illegal immigration than terrorism.
More than 40 passengers have been arrested since June in cases when TSA screeners spotted altered passports, fraudulent visas and resident ID cards, and forged driver’s licenses. Many of them were arrested on immigration charges.
How many? Why is it possible that they can say more than 40 passengers, yet not give a number on how many were arrested on immigration charges? Why is this intentionally vague. Why does no one see that this has nothing to do with airport security? And what, exactly, is the conviction rates on these arrests?
One the one hand, I think I’d rather have a black light shined on my ID than have a rectal exam courtesy of the TSA. On the other hand, this feels like another step on the slippery slope to a surveillance state. We now have REAL-ID (though possibly delayed forever), RFID passports, fingerprinting foreigners who just want to visit us, removal of shoes, no water or breast milk, no wearing questionable t-shirts, numerous ID checks in case you changed since you went through security, and general harassment of passengers.
I’m really sick of the government trying to protect me.
