Anything that makes it more difficult....or helps catch potential terrorists, I'm for.
profiling
credit card history
etc.
If the 92- year old Norwegian grandmother paid cash and that sets off alarm bells, so be it. But to just search her randomly doesn't seem to make much sense to me.
Squawk- if you are "operating" in the public venue and there is a security issue, then you are open to public scrutiny. 1984ish, unfortunately not, because 1984 was before 9/11/01.