3 ms·
Same situation - blonde haired, blue eyed white guy. For a while I was getting checked on every single flight I took, something like 10 flights in a row. I even
by sho 8y ago
Same situation - blonde haired, blue eyed white guy. For a while I was getting checked on every single flight I took, something like 10 flights in a row. I even asked why, to be told it was random - bullshit. Flipping heads 10 times in a row is not "random". They would stand there and wait for me!
I actually have a theory, which is that I (and yourself, and the GP) are targeted to provide deniability of racial profiling. Build up a buffer of whiter-than-white business guys and then no-one can accuse you of racism when you grab the person you really want. No idea if there's any truth to it but it's the only reason I could come up with.
- mabcat 8y agoI have no inside information on the following... but an effective explosive trace detection screen would go like this. First, it would be random, with no profiling. Profiling gets defeated by shaving, change of clothing, etc. Random selection can't be defeated. I would make it resistant to implicit profiling from the operators by saying "wear a watch, every time the seconds reach 0 you select the next person for screening." Then, I would make it hard to dodge being selected by varying pace through screening, with a rule that "at the selection time you pick the next person through the metal detector, without giving passengers any indication that you've picked, and wait for your selectee who gets screened no matter how much they dawdle or how long the X-ray search takes". Next time you fly you'll observe that the ETD procedure at Australian airports is consistent with this theoretical design.