June 9, 2008 8:38AM # ID Checks are About Control, Not Security By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE If there was ever any doubt that ID checks at airports are about control and not security, the Transportation Security Administration is clearing that up. Starting June 21, [it says](http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/enhance_id_requirements.shtm), “passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint \[sic\] will be denied access to the secure area of airports.” The claim is that this initiative is “the latest in a series designed to facilitate travel for legitimate passengers while enhancing the agency’s risk-based focus — on people, not things.” So let’s take a moment to look at how refusing airport access to the willful enhances security. … OK! We’re done! No terrorist or criminal would draw attention to him or herself by obstinately refusing an ID check. This is only done by the [small](http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/06/71115) [coterie](http://news.cnet.com/8301-13739_3-9769089-46.html) of civil libertarians and security experts who can’t stand the security pantomime that is airport identification checking. The rest of the people traveling without ID have lost theirs — and TSA officials at airports have no way of knowing which is which. This new rule will do nothing to improve airport security, but watch for the incident when a TSA agent “doesn’t believe” someone who has truly lost his or her driver’s license and tries to strand a traveler in a faraway city. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![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/).