Not Cloud Nine

http://www.cato.org


Registered Traveler: Not Quite Cloud Nine

"Only one of the USA's busiest airports has signed up for a much-vaunted program to speed travelers through checkpoints, while at least a half-dozen others are balking at an idea that they say won't work," according to USA Today. "The lack of sign-ups could threaten the Registered Traveler program, pushed by Congress for years as a way to speed up post-9/11 security lines by giving minimal inspections to air travelers who pass a background check.

"'The program is far less appealing and less effective if only a handful of airports offer it,' said Chicago O'Hare International Airport spokeswoman Wendy Abrams. A lack of support raises the prospect that the program may not become a nationwide network that gives participants a quick pass through security. Four major airports have already said no, four more say they are skeptical and a dozen others are undecided even as the program prepares for its debut."

Jim Harper, director of Cato's information policy studies and author of the forthcoming book Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood, had this to say about the Register Traveler program last year before a House subcommittee: "There are problems with Registered Traveler. It is unseemly to have government agents associated with segregating 'preferred' travelers from others. The Registered Traveler program essentially denies fairness, due process, and privacy protections to volunteers. And the 'voluntariness' of the program could disappear at any time. Because it is a government program, no promise about it being optional can be assured. The problems with Registered Travel are premised on the error in having government provide security services to the air transportation industry. There are emotional and political justifications for it, but there is no principled, security-based, or economic rationale for providing a massive security subsidy to airlines."