Transportation Security Administration’s new blue light special
Going through airport security last week, I was surprised when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent asked me to remove my driver’s license from the plastic pocket in my wallet. When I did, he took a small blue light and looked carefully at my license, then returned it to me.
I had not encountered this before (last time I flew was November), so I asked Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the TSA, what was up. Here’s his e-mail reply:
“The lights and loupes our people are employing now to screen IDs are aimed at assisting us in finding false identification. Specifically the lights make it easier to see holograms employed by many agencies on forms of ID, while the loupes, or small magnifying glasses, help us see small elements of authenticity, usually on things like passports.
“Over the past year, we have begun to serve as the travel documents checkers in most airports as we saw it as a security function.”
Travelers should be aware of this from a couple of standpoints: First, if you’re traveling on a fake ID, the jig may be up. And second — and this is the vast majority of us — if your ID is encased, as mine is, you may be asked to remove it, thus slowing down the line.
Safety versus speed — it’s always a balancing act.
For answers to all of your travel questions, go to the Times’ Travel Sourcebook 2008.
— Catharine Hamm, Los Angeles Times Travel Editor
[Photo: TSA screeners at LAX by Robert Durrell / Los Angeles Times]
2 Comments on “Transportation Security Administration’s new blue light special”
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March 3rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
Wow - very interesting Catharine. I’ve been flying around the west coast this past month but haven’t seen this yet. I would like to think that they’d check licenses that get shown outside of plastic as well.
I’ll let you know if it happens to me.
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger
March 4th, 2008 at 10:32 am
This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with training formerly free people to obey government officers. Any security expert will tell you that “correct” ID does not correlate to better security. Knowing the names of everyone aboard a flight may make it easier to identify the bodies after a terrorist incident, but it does nothing to thwart that incident.
Forcing people to submit ID also makes it easier for the government to catch — and fine –folks who flout its silly and unConstitutional rules on identification, residency requirements, etc.