Which turns out to be a mistake ~ but TSA and other federal agencies are tied to a belief in "random sampling" that assumes uniformity in the flow of passengers is the normal condition.
W. Edwards Deming once observed that over a long enough period of time ANY sampling scheme will tend toward randomness ~ so you don't need to say "Hey, let's hit every n'th item, or person". Instead, you can say "I feel like it's time to hit someone" and do it, and with enough customers you'd end up with something that's arguably "random".
I prefer to think of air carrier safety being a QUALITY CONTROL question ~ not at all a safety question. After all these are airplanes, they're going way high in the air, they are full of all sorts of volatile fuels, even their engines could blow up under NORMAL CONDITIONS.
They are not inherently safe, and bomb carrying passengers may well NOT increase anyone's level of risk enough to measure ~ fur shur 9/11 didn't cause all of us to give up commercial air travel.
As a quality control question we can look at the customers as something other than IDENTICAL ITEMS that we need to polish, buff and gussy up to make them fit right in the airplanes. We can, in fact, view them as nothing more than different items whose relationship to air travel is simply one of volume (affecting absolute capacity limits within the airframe) and weight (affecting absolute lifting capability of the aircraft).
Fur Shur, TSA is not measuring size and weight of the full passenger load for the purpose of detecting a FALSE TRAVELER ~ that is, someone carrying a bomb. They are instead selecting PLACE IN LINE, which on the face of it is a factor of absolutely no consequence to the quality of the coming flight ~ except under special circumstances.
For example, I was once standing toward the end of a line at the Frankfort airport waiting to get on a shuttle to London's Heathrow ~ and a bus to the downtown terminal. A steward comes up and asks me if I'd give up my place in line for this other passenger who needed to jump on that shuttle to link up with a further overseas connection. He assured me I could get on the next segment in 15 minutes.
So, I said "Yeah, sure, whatever".
Wouldn't you know it the first segment crashed and burned at Heathrow. My flight landed. You could look over at the wreck already pushed off the runway.
That's how "place in line" works ~ but rarely. TSA's current approach would have retroactively blamed the crash on my having changed my place in line for air service.
Weight and size can be estimated electronically for each and every passenger with in-motion equipment now widely available. Profiling by skin tone, shape of nose, shape of ears, hair characteristics, and skeletal proportions can be as easily determined by existing modern equipment then matched to weight and size tables to determine if "somebody is amiss" or in a physical category known to be highly correlated with the presence of explosives, bombs or bad attitudes.
Instead of selecting people on "place in line" shifting to a physical profiling system that evaluates weight, volume, reflectivity, and shape of external organs, we can probably reduce the working samples to a very low number of folks for whom we can reserve even BODY CAVITY SEARCHES. That's when we'll start discovering the modern bombs.
Your reward for doing the right thing. Or good luck.
There are many different working systems. Taking something like ‘place in line’, works so long as you believe that terrorists are randomly distributed across the sample. If that’s not the case, then random sampling won’t produce random outcomes.
This is the problem with random sampling is that it does nothing to combat systematic error. Fr’instance. My old planting boss used to assign the best planters, the pieces in the open that were easily accessible. He also assigned the new folks, the horrible, back of the line places. Why? He knew that the inspectors were more likely to check the easy pieces.
The same is true of the terrorist systems in place now. Checking every 11th person will nab some of the terrorists.
However, it’s more effective to profile. Had the inspectors profiled me, they would have found more errors than with the experienced planters. They also wouldn’t have to look as hard. The same is true of Muslims. Most terrorists are Muslims. Enough so to justify 1 out of every 4 searches being of a non-muslim. You combat systematic error by slanting your searches to target the error.
INFO & ARTICLES ON TSA PERVERTS
FLYERTALK.COM -
Travel/Safety/Security Section
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security-222/
Thread dedicated to TSA Criminal Activity -
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1149208-tsa-criminal-activity-thread.html
NEWS ARTICLES -
Young Boy Strip Searched By TSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skkCpnCm7iM
1- Former Orlando TSA officer gets probation in sex-slave case -
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-06-15/news/os-orlando-tsa-officer-arrested-sex-t20100615_1_charles-henry-bennett-sex-slave-sex-offender-probation
2- TSA airport screener arrested for child porn also worked at Catholic school; Questions remain -
http://www.examiner.com/la-county-libertarian-in-los-angeles/tsa-airport-screener-arrested-for-child-porn-also-worked-at-catholic-school-questions-remain
3- TSA Agent Arrested at LAX (TSA using drugs at a party)
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local-beat/TSA-Security-Agent-Arrested-at-LAX-80858482.html
4- TSA Agent Accused of Harboring Fugitive
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/TSA_Agent_Accused_of_Harboring_Fugitive_091809
5- TSA officer at DIA arrested in connection with luring child online
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20080711/NEWS/999462965
6- TSA screener arrested for drug theft at Little Rock airport
http://www.fox16.com/mostpopular/story/TSA-screener-arrested-for-drug-theft-at-Little/oMbCSazQZkOUkvmyCKn03Q.cspx
7- TSA officer charged in boy's kidnap attempt - Police in Idaho say man also possessed documents for 5 separate identities
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12302041/
8- TSA Worker Arrested On Drug, Gun Charges
http://www.wftv.com/news/19130582/detail.html
- Memos Detail TSA Officer's Cocaine Pranks Worker joked about finding drugs in luggage
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/stupid/memos-detail-tsa-officers-cocaine-pranks
- TSA screener arrested for beating co-worker
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/05/latest_tsa_screener_drama_noth.html
- TSA Agent: "I am god, I'm in charge"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f187t-OF_j0
- TSA officer among duo arrested for stealing from fliers' luggage at JFK
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/legacy/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=68494489.blog
- Child rape charge rocks TSA
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1238602
Tsa- Screener Charged With Raping 14 Year Old Girl
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/tsa-screnner-charged-with-raping-14-year-old-girl-25-apx-20100310
- TSA Agent arrested for sex crimes www.privateofficer.com
http://privateofficernews.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/tsa-agent-arrested-for-sex-crimes-wwwprivateofficercom/
- TSA Employee Steals Over $200,000 in Electronics
http://notalemming.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/tsa_steals_200000_gadgets.jpg?w=609&h=608
- TSA Forces Woman To Remove Nipple Rings
http://notalemming.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/tsa_nipple_rings.jpg?w=640&h=556
Compliments of BossLady Friday, November 19, 2010
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2629918/posts?page=23#23 & 65