There was a recent announcement made Tuesday by the TSA regarding your right to fly on airplanes without ID. Apparently, in the past, one could fly sans ID by agreeing to a secondary pat-down and search of your carry-on bag(this is in addition to the possibility that your carry-on could be randomly searched before boarding). Now, the TSA says that you MUST have an ID and refusing to present one will equate to you being denied access to the terminals.

Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.

Source: http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/enhance_id_requirements.shtm

However, if you cite simply having forgot your ID as the reason for not presenting it, you will be subjected to the normal secondary search and allowed to pass through:

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers.

Source: http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/enhance_id_requirements.shtm

To me, cooperative is a fairly vague term. What if I submit to the secondary search but not after a bit of a discussion? Can they just decide to boot me whenever they want for whatever they want?

No greater security

To be honest, this really does nothing to make me feel secure. How does this prevent any sort of security risk at all? Is it so hard to believe that people can get fake IDs?

There seems to be a false assumption that by adding improved security measures, people are actually safer. In reality, people who are abiding by the law are more hassled and those that are not simply come up with new ways around them. This is a recurring theme in government and law-making: the idea that making it illegal makes it go away or that making it more restrictive makes safer.

The truth is, those of us that aren’t trying to blow up planes or kill innocent civilians and just want to get to Florida on time are more hassled, more angry, and less likely to use planes. The airplane companies are looking for reasons why people don’t want to fly; here is a reason I avoid it: having to arrive three hours early just to wait in a long line, strip off my shoes and all my belongings in a plastic bin, and deal with snotty guards is probably the worst travel experience in the world. I would rather drive, take a bus, or jump on a train than deal with planes.

The end is not in sight

I wish I would say that all of this will blow past us and eventually our country will return to some sort of normalcy but I don’t see it being the case. We continue to dive deeper and deeper into the idea that sacrificing privacy equates to greater security. To be honest, I would trade back all of these new measures to return to the way things were because at this point I feel less secure than ever before.