May 26, 2010 11:47AM # Good Thing There Are So Few Bad Guys By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE Returning from Chicago this past weekend, I noticed that they were using strip-search machines in several security lanes at the TSA checkpoint (ORD Terminal 1). Naturally, after the ID check—yes, [I did show ID this time](http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/06/71115)—I chose a lane that lead to a magnetometer rather than a strip-search machine. Annnnnd, anyone wanting to smuggle a plastic weapon could do the same. For all the money spent on strip-search machines at ORD, and for all the exposure law-abiding travelers are getting, the incremental security benefit has been just about exactly zero. Security theater. TSA has to direct people to lanes mandatorily or install strip-search machines at all lanes to get whatever small security benefit they provide. Going through the strip-search machine is optional—you can get a pat-down instead. Signage to that effect was poorly placed for informing the public, at the entrance to the strip-search machine. Travelers might read it as they stepped into the machine, realizing from that standing spread-eagle position that they didn’t have to be there. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).