Airport security counter-productive
By Nicole Rodriguez
Sept. 11th marked a time of great change in this country - specifically in the airline industry. Check-in times have doubled at airports and security personnel have supposedly been instructed to be twice as cautious when examining luggage.
And while this increase in caution seems warranted on a surface level, one cannot help but wonder how effective these procedures truly are.
Take, for example, the security at Oakland International Airport over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.
Bound for Salt Lake City, my friends and I arrived at the curbside check-in for Southwest Airlines nearly two hours early only to find ourselves sitting on the sidewalk while two attendants proceeded to open and search the check-in bags of every passenger on the airline.
Nearly an hour and a half later, suitcases examined and checked through to the plane, we were herded into the overcrowded terminal only to find another hour-long security line waiting for us. Had it not been for a sympathetic security guard who allowed us to cut to the front of the line, we would have missed the flight all together.
Not that I think heightened security is a bad thing. I agree that the safety of all airline passengers should be of the utmost importance, and if I believed for one minute that these procedures were in any way effective, I would lend them my full support.
However, upon arriving in Salt Lake City, I opened my purse (which had undergone all of Oakland's "heightened" carry-on security measures) only to find I had forgotten to leave at home the bottle of pepper spray I keep indiscreetly clipped to my key chain. I had spent over two hours at security checkpoints and had still managed to walk right onto a plane carrying a weapon that could have potentially harmed other passengers and crew.
Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I kept the bottle on the chain as I passed through Salt Lake City security for my return flight, making sure that my keys were on top of everything else in my zipped purse. I even went so far as to not so subtly inform my companions of my possession while we waited in both the security line and check-in points.
The end result: I am sitting at my desk right now writing my column with my keys, that same bottle of pepper spray still dangling boldly next to the receiver for my car alarm, wondering why on earth I had to waste two hours of my life in security, when any fool with a purse can carry anything they want onto a plane.