You too may fit the profile0

Things have changed once again.  It used to be that you could get on a plane quite easily after your baggage was x-rayed for contraband – drugs, excessive cash etc.

However, the September 11th attacks ushered in a slew of aviation security changes which are now considered to be commonplace such as: metal detectors, pat downs and stricter check-in procedures to name a few. It seems unfathomable that knives were once allowed onto planes. The botched attack of the infamous shoe-bomber, Richard Reid, meant that some of us now have to accept being asked to take off our shoes for x-raying as part of the security measures. The 2006  transatlantic aviation attack plot led to hand luggage liquid bans/restrictions as well.

Things are different now. The attempted attack by the 23-year old Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, otherwise known as the “christmas or crotch bomber” on Detroit-bound Flight 253 has changed things once more. The latest slew of security measures in include full body x-rays, tighter immigration rules and behavioural profiling…

X-ray body scanners that make their subjects appear naked are causing huge uproar amongst various civil society groupings with the Pope as well as Jewish and Muslim groups weighing in against them on privacy and humility grounds.  Their legality has been challenged and some peoples’ refusals to pass through them have made the news.  The controversy is clear. There is a lot to be said both for the scanners as a precaution; and against them as an infringement on our rights – one day they too may become a norm.

The other new precaution is behavioural profiling whereby security officials have been trained to look out for ‘suspicious’ behaviour such as traveling without luggage and paying cash for business class flights.  This could be a departure from alleged racial and religious profiling based on stereotypical conceptions of what terrorists look like.  This is welcome based on MI5 reports which state that stereotypical terrorists do not exist.   However behavioural profiling also arguably risks being taken to the extreme leading to surveillance societies à la 1984. Is there such a thing as too much security?

First, individuals pass through a car-screening process as they are asked, “How are you today” and “Where are you coming from”? The answers to these questions are important so that the guard hears the vocal patterns of the traveler. Second, you arrive at the passport verification area as security personnel run through a list of questions, examining every answer and every physically visible emotion. Third, your luggage is checked in a bombproof area that can contain a blast to upwards of 100 kilos of plastic explosives. For those of you who feel like this is no different than most high-security airports, here’s the getter. The entire time you’re getting checked in, from car arrival to boarding, trained behavioral profilers are watching your every move, from the way you smile to the way you scratch your nose. – dailyorange.com

With stereotyping old habits die hard .