WASHINGTON – After 9/11 airports have become synonymous with the name Transportation Security Administration. Whether traveling domestically or internationally, travelers have to arrive at the airport extra early to go through the painful experience that is security.
Recently the TSA announced that its security is expanding its presence into other areas of transportation – train stations.
And this is all in the name of counterterrorism.
Civil liberties and privacy have been hot topics of this summer after revelations of the National Security Agency’s data-gathering plan. Every issue has its pros and cons, and the issue of the TSA is no different. Even though the TSA’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response squads have been around since 2005, it seems like they’re more and more visible every day.
A recent article in the New York Times talks about how unhappy some people are with VIPR appearing in transportation hubs instead of local police. Instead of local policemen skulking around, it’s now TSA-badge clad men and women.
“VIPR teams work at the request of local law enforcement officials to supplement existing security resources by providing deterrent presence and detection capabilities, and an unpredictable layer of security,” a TSA official said.
The American Civil Liberties Union doesn’t seem to support this expansion. On its website, the ACLU has an entire section dedicated to complaints about the TSA, where travelers can describe their experiences and how they feel their rights have been violated.
ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley believes that not only does the TSA expansion abuse Americans’ civil liberties, it also doesn’t keep them any safer.
“Terrorism is very rare,” Stanley said in an interview. “We could spend billions and billions of dollars trying to set up security in every train and bus station and even then there’s no guarantee that it’ll work. It’s not a good trade off for the American people.”
Washington’s Union Station doubles as a mall and a place to go for lunch. It’s a type of place where people walk in and out of all the time. If people can’t shop without receiving a pat down, are Americans really free?
Stanley doesn’t think so. He said that Americans are unnecessarily sacrificing their right to privacy because acts of terrorism don’t occur very often.
“There’s a risk of terrorism everywhere,” Stanley said. “The question is how large is that risk, and how much do we reduce that risk by putting in place these measures?”
Stanley does agree with the need for TSA security in airports because air travel is vulnerable in ways that train travel isn’t. He believes that air travel should be an exception to the rule, but not other kinds of travel, especially trains.
“We don’t want a country where we need to go through TSA-like checks,” Stanley said.
If it turns out that Americans are safer by adding TSA to all public places, then so be it. But at the end of the day, will Americans be happy with that?
