ARE YOU A THREAT TO AIR TRAVEL?
By Laura Quarantiello
® Tiare Publications Group
255 words
The airlines don't like it. Travelers are wary of it. But the
government is moving ahead with plans for background checks of
airline passengers just the same. The new system, called Computer
Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, is a new version
of the original CAPPS system used by the airlines. The new government-
run system will use both passenger-provided information and data from
law enforcement databases to confirm identities and assign a risk
level to every passenger boarding a U.S. commercial airline flight.
The computerized system will assign travelers a number and a color
code ranking each person's potential threat. Green coded passengers
will be able to move easily through security checkpoints. Persons
given yellow codes will be asked to undergo additional screening. The
rare red-tagged passengers will be denied boarding and turned over to
law enforcement for additional questioning.
Proponents of CAPPS II say that collecting names, home addresses,
phone number, dates of birth and travel itineraries is a more
thorough way to screen passengers and will increase safety, improving
on the old system which often flagged passengers as suspicious simply
because they paid for their ticket with cash. Critics say the system
won't make airline travel any safer and is a definite intrusion on
privacy.
But don't panic just yet. The airlines are reluctant to turn over
passenger reservation lists and privacy rights activists are up in
arms over the new system. So until the dust settles, you can expect
the same long lines at the airport and security screening as usual.
(End)
Laura Quarantiello is the author of "Air-Ways: The Insider's Guide to
Air Travel" û and all the ups and downs of getting there by air. This
book is as important to a having a good flight as a boarding pass!
More info at:
http://www.tiare.com/airways.htm
