An HS Daily Wire conversation with Walter Hamilton of the International Biometrics Industry Association (IBIA)
by objections from civil liberties advocates?
Hamilton: Those individuals who are willing to pay a $100 annual fee for expedited service at airports receive the benefit. One could suggest that persons without the financial means to gain access to the service are somehow treated as second-class citizens.
DW: How legitimate is the objection to the frequent-flyer program you mentioned, that it is “elitist”? Presumably any traveler could submit to the pre-screening and go to the head of the line.
Hamilton: While this issue has been raised in the press, I don’t think that it is a major impediment to this type of program moving forward. My view is that any system that allows more experienced frequent travelers, who have been previously screened, to move along faster is a benefit to all travelers.
DW: That introduces the idea of special treatment at a price.
Hamilton: Yes. But then someone able to able to travel that often would almost certainly be a person with some financial means or access to monetary resources. The indigent or homeless are most likely not frequent flyers. If you were not a frequent flyer, such a system would not make sense.
DW: Since security is what we’re after here, would it not be worth it for the authorities to forgo the fee, thereby circumventing the “elitist” charge?
Hamilton: On that point the Transportation Security Administration has come up with its Diamond Lane Program, which will require no fee and is not based on biometrics. You just declare voluntarily, when you enter the security zone, whether you are an experienced traveler, a moderate traveler, or an unfamiliar traveler and choose the appropriate lane for your category. That concept helps direct certain people, perhaps those with a large family of children, to a lane that perhaps has available more assistance from the security personnel, while allowing experienced travelers to proceed quickly through designated lanes.
If I’m a frequent flyer, and I know how to get through the security process without having to go through a secondary evaluation - to use a skiing metaphor, I should be allowed to choose the expert slope instead of the bunny slope. So T.S.A. is looking at doing that, as well as offering programs that use a biometrically enabled credential which would involve fees and background checks.
DW: It would seem to be worth it for the federal government to fund such programs, and concentrate limited screener resources on the people we do
