A TSA Improvement?!?!

David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD on

A TSA Improvement ?!?!– April 2025

I rarely have anything good to say about the TSA or airport security in general. That’s just how it goes when you travel as much as I do, especially with gear that raises more eyebrows than it should. But today – flying out of Newark Terminal A en-route to a conference in Las Vegas – something happened that might actually count as progress.

I’ve written before about how, as an engineer and technologist, I tend to travel with more stuff than the average person. Chargers, cables, microphones, cameras, and other odd-looking gadgets fill my bags – along with a separate set of personal supplies I carry since my last surgery. Let’s just say I don’t pack as lightly as I’d like to.

Normally, this doesn’t cause any problems. I have TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and enough background checks to qualify me for a mid-level security clearance. At most airports, I just breeze through. But Newark? My good old home EWR always pulls my bags for secondary screening. They unpack, re-X-ray, and scatter my belongings like they’re performing a magic trick with poor follow-through. There’s usually no time or space to repack anything neatly, so I just gather my stuff and limp away like a sad tech piñata.

But today? Today was different.

Both my briefcase and roll-aboard suitcase were pulled again – nothing new there. But once they reached secondary screening, something surprising happened. Instead of being disassembled by agents who looked fresh out of training, my bags were reviewed on the x-ray computer screen by someone who clearly knew what they were looking at.

When the agent saw the ice pack I use to keep my medicine cool, he said, “Oh, I see you’ve got an ice pack with some of your medicine.” I offered to open the bag for him, since I’d packed it near the top, but he just shook his head and said, “No need.” Then he handed it right back to me. No swabbing, no rifling through my personal items, no judgmental eyebrow raise at the tangle of cables that looks suspicious but isn’t.

Both bags were reviewed – digitally, calmly, and intelligently – and returned to me unopened.

So yeah... I’m still noodling on this, but at first blush I think it’s a smart improvement. It seems Newark is trying out a system where the less-experienced scanner operators are backed up by more seasoned screeners who can make judgment calls without turning every bag into a yard sale. That’s not just more efficient – it’s more respectful. And honestly, it might even be safer.

Kudos to the team at Newark for pulling that off. Let’s hope it sticks.

And just to reassure you that the gods of travel must still follow the laws of entropy, the TSA hassles were replaced by United and LAS hassles (late plane; idiotic mid-boarding stop while a tire was inspected – requiring boarding to start again once the inspection was done; broken WiFi; FIVE busses to the rental car facility all taking their break at the same time while hundreds were waiting to be picked up, etc…)

When one thing gets easier, nature fills the travel-pain-gap. As I said, entropy.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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