The clash of security and entertainment

Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, LARRY ANDERSON, EDITOR

LEAVE IT TO LAS VEGAS to add an entertainment element to the passenger screening experience.

Those returning from ISC-West earlier this month were treated to video screens in the airport security queue playing cutesy videos starring Vegas icons such as Carrot Top and Wayne Newton. They were doing little skits and routines to explain and expound on the screening process.

Tired from the trade show, I was in no mood for cutesy, so I'm not sure I was a very good audience for the videos. They seemed to add insult to injury for those snaking through the maze to take their turn unpacking their laptops, removing their shoes, and deciding whether chewing gum wrapper would set off the machine. Fortunately, the line was short and I only had to watch the Carrot Top video twice.

When I got back to the office, I came across another story about the convergence of entertainment and airport security, this one from London as reported by the Associated Press.

It seems there's this guy who asked a cab driver to play music stored in his MP-3 player over the taxi's stereo system during a drive to the airport. The driver, apparently bothered by the lyrics of “London Calling” by The Clash, alerted airport authorities, who reportedly arrested the music-lover as he boarded a flight for London's Heathrow Airport. The lyrics of the song are something like “now war is declared, and battle come down.”

The local police say the man's plane took off before they had established that he was not a threat, adding “we would not want to discourage people from contacting us with genuine concerns regarding security.” And what person over 30 isn't freaked out by some of the lyrics in today's music?

This type of security story can be somewhat distracting — at least as distracting as the Carrot Top video — but let's not let it undermine the seriousness of the subject at hand. As the British police reiterated, “the report was made with the best of intentions,” and far be it from any one of us to discourage the citizenry at large from staying vigilant and alert to possible security concerns.

Lives could be saved by an observant taxi driver.

But beyond the musical tastes of airline passengers, or the well-meaning educational efforts of Las Vegas entertainers, there remain deadly serious security vulnerabilities at our nation's airports.

Some of them are described by airport security expert Billie Vincent in the article beginning on page 26. The scenarios he describes could depress even Carrot Top.

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