Bad

The description of the new rules for searching people in airport security frustrates me - I feel this "randomness" they're seeking is more annoying than productive.

Passengers also can expect more randomness at security gates so would-be terrorists won't know for sure what they might see.

For example, an airport might require all passengers to remove their shoes one day but not the next. Some passengers may have to show their identification an extra time or have their carry-on bag hand-searched.

"By incorporating unpredictability into our procedures and eliminating low-threat items, we can better focus our efforts on stopping individuals who wish to do us harm,'' Hawley said.

Using their shoe example - if potential bad guys know you're doing shoe checks half the time, wouldn't you think they'd avoid that rather than taking a 50/50 risk? With this line of thinking, they'd almost be better if they only did it once a week so the terrorists would be more likely to try this but then they'd be less likely to get caught... which is bad...

I'd rather have them check 100% of the time so that people that fly know what to expect from the screening process which makes it smoother for everyone, and gives the searchers more time to search sketchy stuff because they aren't searching my grandma because she didn't take off her shoes because nobody told her to.

In the end, I think that bad guys will figure out how to do bad things that we haven't yet anticipated. Thus, we should try to screen against things to make people feel good but net-net, if bad guys get a good idea they can act on it undetected.