Does airport security make sense?

Eye-rolling anecdotes aside, I don’t mean to mock airport security. It’s a fact of travel life and one that we’ll be dealing with as long as we use airplanes to get around. But it’s also a fact of life that evil people will always be able to sneak deadly materials onto airplanes if they want to badly enough. The current system is designed in part to add enough uncertainty to the screening process to give someone pause, but it may just prompt them to change their plan of attack.

In other words, the next airplane-based terror threat probably won’t have anything to do with liquids or gels — or lighters, shoes or box cutters, for that matter — but rather, something else previously considered safe. If that’s the case, I shudder to think what we’ll have to give up next.

Ban people, not objects?
The bigger problem, say critics, is that the focus on prohibiting banned objects is worse than inefficient — it’s misguided. Instead, they say, screeners should focus on people who display suspicious behavior, not potentially suspect items. In fact, TSA has been testing such a program since 2003 and is currently rolling it out in airports across the country.

The program, called Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, employs “behavior detection officers” who are trained to scan travelers for behaviors and body language that signal unease or agitation. Profuse sweating, nervous tics, even seemingly excessive loitering can prompt a follow-up conversation and added scrutiny.

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Sweating? Nervousness? Standing around? Doesn’t that pretty much define life in the terminal these days? The folks at TSA say SPOT-trained agents will be able to tell the difference between the normally nervous and the maliciously motivated, but don’t be surprised if you feel like you’re being watched the next time you fly.

Still, and despite concerns about training, tactics and the potential for racial profiling, SPOT seems like a step in the right direction. It’s not perfect, and it won’t replace metal detectors and secondary bag checks entirely. It may, however, prompt more effective use of those other screening techniques, which would certainly be an improvement.

And who knows, maybe someday soon, we may even be able to travel with our snow globes and scissors in hand, our regular toiletries in our carry-on bags and our shoes on our feet.

Rob Lovitt is a frequent contributor to MSNBC.com. If you have feedback for Rob, send him an e-mail.

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