I suppose searching flight crew is pointless really. An ID check would suffice. Personally I do not deal with searching flight crew as I work on security for individual US bound aircraft. We only have to check IDs of flight crew against a list. I'd imagine flight crew are searched just to shut up the 20,000 passengers a day who'd say, "Why am I getting searched and they are getting through?"
I've always found that the rules for confiscating items changes by the day. One of our airlines decided 'Ok right, lighters... are allowed. Actually no they're not allowed. Err... yes no yes no... Ok they can take lighters but only one.' Would you believe that!! The other daft one I find is that a broken mirror is not allowed, but an intact mirror is allowed. Anyone else see a flaw in that...?