Fast Pass at Airport Security

Business travelers may soon have one more item to stuff in their carry-on: a trusted-traveler card to speed them through security lines.

The Transportation Security Administration plans to start testing a registered-traveler identification program in June, which will let those who volunteer for a background check avoid tight screening at the airport.

While civil liberties groups have questioned the plan's merits, travel industry groups have welcomed it, calling the proposal a way to expedite travel and increase security without the costs and privacy concerns associated with CAPPS II, the TSA's ongoing attempt to create a new computerized passenger-screening program.

Currently, passengers who book one-way flights, pay with cash or buy their tickets close to their departure date are flagged by a computerized passenger-screening system as potential terrorists. Those passengers, along with a random selection of other travelers, have the code "SSSS" printed on their boarding passes, which leads to intensive scrutiny that can cause them to miss their flights.

Despite the tight June deadline, few details of the program have been ironed out, said TSA spokeswoman Amy Von Walter.

The pilot project, which will be free for participants, is expected to last 90 days and will take place at four or five major airports, according to congressional testimony last week by TSA chief David Stone.

The cards likely will include a biometric identifier, such as a fingerprint or iris scan. Participants also will have their backgrounds checked against commercial or government databases. However, the TSA has not yet decided which airports, vendors, databases or identifiers will be involved, Von Walter said.

"Frankly, the pilot is still in the planning phase," she said. "But we are hoping, between the technology and the security assessments, that we will expedite the security process for qualified participants."

Von Walter stressed that the card is not a "get out of security checks" card, and that those who register will still have to go through metal detectors. The program may, however, create designated lanes to speed registered travelers past long lines.

Doug Wills, a spokesman for the airline industry's trade group, the Air Transport Association, said he was "surprised but pleased" by last Wednesday's announcement. He said he thinks the program should be easy to set up since the government already runs three similar projects: one for Mexican agricultural workers, another for the trucking industry and another, called INSPASS, that speeds some international air travelers through customs.

"The Air Transport Association's position is that the TSA should start with a registered-traveler program before pursuing CAPPS II, since there are far fewer privacy and operational concerns," Wills said.

Nancy Holtzman, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, also welcomed the test project, but hinted that her group thinks the program would be better as a replacement for background checks on all passengers.

"From the start, our membership has always favored a registered-traveler-type alternative to long airport security lines," Holtzman said. "The convenience of not having to stand in a long airport security line has a definite value for business travelers. In at least two surveys, our U.S. membership overwhelmingly preferred the voluntary nature of a registered-traveler program over more invasive programs."

But privacy advocates and civil libertarians say the idea is deeply flawed and may actually be a security risk.

"'Trusted traveler' is a big security problem because unless you have a tremendous amount of confidence in your process, it is easy to abuse -- especially if there is any kind of insider help," said Lee Tien, staff counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In addition, the program smacks of a national ID program, even if it is voluntary, he said. "It is something we should not do lightly, and it is very easy for this sort of thing to spill over."

Marcia Hofmann, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the program is hard to evaluate since so little is known about it.

"First of all, like with many of the Department of Homeland Security's initiatives, if we don't know how it works, how can we know it will work?" asked Hofmann.

Hofmann also pointed out that the TSA has yet to issue the required privacy notices and reports, which TSA spokeswoman Von Walter said may not apply since the program is voluntary.

Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, said the trusted-traveler program offers the illusion of security but really just unnecessarily "creates a second class of travelers for security purposes."

"The attacks in Spain illustrate what a lot of security people have been saying for a long time: Terrorists adapt, and they have gone beyond airplanes," Steinhardt said. "We still have a massive infrastructure in the United States -- from rail transportation to hazardous material sites -- (that) are essentially unprotected.

"It has worked fairly well to go after things, things that people carry or pack away into the cargo hold," Steinhardt said. "It is not an accident that we have not had a horrible terrorist attack on an airplane post-Sept. 11. It doesn't make sense to do background checks on 100 million Americans, knowing, as we do, there will be an incredibly high false-positive rate."

After the program's three-month trial this summer, the TSA will take 30 days to evaluate its efficacy before deciding whether to expand the project and whether to charge passengers for the card in the event of a widespread rollout, according to TSA officials.