Profiling and the FAA
As most of you will know the US carriers and I believe all carriers flying to the US out of the UK and I would imagine many other international destinations use passenger profiling as mandated by the FAA. They use private security companies such as ADI, once part owned by BA, ICTS and Initial Aviation. Of course somewhat idiotically they assumed that internally they were safe and allowed for example passengers on a direct flight (stop on route with the same plane continuing to another destination) to leave their hand baggage on board. I was working for a US airline that allowed this and raised the issue with my management of course nothing was done. However from what I have seen profiling does seem to be very effective. The cost needn't be huge if shared between all airlines at an airport and the contract negotiated accordingly to make maximum benefit of economies of scale. Whilst I agree that in general the BAA staff are reasonably trained, leaving profiling to them would ineviatbly lead to delays since the same pressure to perform cannot be exerted on their monopoly situation as it could be on a private contractor with next year's contract to win.
On the topic of how security is performed in my view out of the UK hold baggage is sufficiently robust, why do you think they are trying to use SAM now, answer because it is tough to get a bomb on board a plane now. All pax and staff should undergo a metal archway and if required back up wand or hand search. Their bags should also be x-rayed. HOWEVER it is clearly ridiculous to take a pair of nail clippers away from a passenger or crew member, when a member of engineering staff can have an altogether lethal selection of potential weapons in his toolkit. Easily handed to a passenger post security. What we should go for is reasonable and consistent measures, since as many people have pointed out many everyday items can be used as weapons...hmmm no metal cutlery but glass, both for drinking out of on board and duty free bottles are allowed. As I have previously posted lets make it as secure as possible without resorting to futile gestures which frustrate everybody with no benefit. I believe certain control authorities should be exempt, police...always....customs...in certain situations....not sure about immigration officers though....cannot see many reasons why they would need to be exempt.