By David Weinman ’11, Staff Writer

“Get your hands off my junk,” cried weary passenger John Tyner at a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) agent while recently going through security at a Washington airport.

Since the enactment of new and more invasive security measures, many complaints such as this one have been heard at our nation’s airports. Security breaches that occurred within the past few years, including one by a man who tried to hide explosives in his underwear, have prompted the creation of these tougher policies. Under the new rules, passengers are given the choice between an intrusive full-body pat down or passing through imaging scanners. The scanners reveal semi-nude images of the passenger to a TSA agent, who surveys the pictures to find suspicious objects. The scanners also expose humans to a small amount of radiation. The federal government has pledged to immediately delete the photos after inspection.

The dilemma at the heart of this controversy exists in striking a proper balance between security and liberty. Nobody likes being groped at the airport or having to put up with long lines at security checkpoints, but the possibility of being blown up by a terrorist is even worse. Therefore, these measures are necessary to save lives.

However, there are steps that the government should take to improve airport security efficiency and effectiveness. Frequent flyers should be given passes to enter a “fast line,” which exempts them from harsher inspections. Additionally, people should be placed into a database that records their flying history and basic information.

Moreover, TSA agents should be trained to identify and study suspicious behavior before the flight. After isolating suspicious passengers, the agents could ask simple questions, such as the purpose of their trip, and have them scanned. That way old grandmothers and little children, who are often highly unsuspicious, are not unnecessarily inconvenienced. Critics claim that this plan would lead to racial profiling, but we cannot let political correctness cloud common sense and hinder the safety of innocent passengers.

Under this recommended system, a young Yemenite man with a one-way ticket to fly across America last year would have been immediately stopped at the airport and would have been subjected to further questioning. However, in our effort to avoid racial profiling, this man almost blew up an airplane with explosives hidden in his underwear.