Airport security checks may get a little less annoying in coming months as the Transportation Security Administration considers shortening its list of contraband items.
The agency said it will focus more on detecting explosives than on confiscating scissors, pocketknives and other less dangerous items.
The list was drawn up after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when security was significantly tightened. It includes meat cleavers, ice picks, ski poles and hammers, among other things.
Over the past four years, passengers across the country have been asked to surrender millions of items. In October, nearly 32,000 items were collected at Denver International Airport checkpoints.
Most don’t fall into the category of intended weapons, including the nail clippers Frontier Airlines chief executive Jeff Potter once got caught carrying through security.
“I don’t know why I had them in my carry-on bag, but I did,” a sheepish Potter said Thursday. “(The screener) broke off the pointy part, the little file, and said, ‘I can either confiscate it or give it back to you.”‘
When banned items are discovered, passengers can give them to others who are not traveling, put them in checked bags, drop them in the mail or leave them at the checkpoint. The TSA turns over items it collects to the General Services Administration.
Lighters, pocketknives and Leatherman tools are some of the most common items surrendered at TSA checkpoints.
Under the new rules being considered by TSA, passengers may be allowed to carry small knives and scissors onto the plane, according to TSA chief Kip Hawley. Such changes could speed security lines and change the way millions of travelers pack their bags.
The TSA’s primary focus is security, not speed, said Carrie Harmon, the agency’s Denver spokeswoman.
“We also want to provide the highest level of customer service that we can, including keeping wait times low, but that’s not our primary focus,” she said.
The average wait time at DIA’s security checkpoints is less than three minutes during off-peak times and under 10 minutes during peak times.
Bonnie Conroy isn’t complaining, even though she once was stopped for trying to carry a watering can through security. The attached trowel was considered contraband. Conroy could have mailed it home, she said.
“It was just too much to get out of line, so I gave it up,” she said.
Potter knows firsthand that thorough security checks can be inconvenient. Even so, he said, “I’m convinced that travelers who travel by air since Sept. 11 understand that some steps need to be taken. Anything that is improving upon safety is something that we’re supportive of.”
In other efforts to reduce security delays, the TSA plans to expand nationwide the Registered Traveler program to allow travelers who pay a fee and pass a background check to avoid random pat-downs.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or at kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
