In an effort to shorten what is often a long, tedious process the TSA is offering a total of $15,000 for individuals who come up with the best ways to speed up security line screenings.
The question is: will efforts to speed things up come at the price of consumer safety?
The contest, which runs from now until August 15 will award a total of $15,00, with $5,000 being awarded for the best idea and $2,500 for other equally helpful ones.
Those interested can apply online, but they are only accepting serious submissions.
In order to be considered you must submit a full-scale solution and take into consideration factors such as wheelchair access, TSA employee schedules, a Pre-Check access point, peak times and high traffic times.
This may seem a little unorthodox, but the agency feels holding this contest will help them come up with fresh, innovative ways to tackle this problem.
However, as someone who flies with my little ones, I’m on the fence about this: the security line is bothersome, but maybe the TSA should be more focused with safety.
Speed sometimes leads to errors and lapse security is already a big concern for many frequent flyers.
There have been numerous reports about individuals accessing airport areas that are off limits and passengers becoming unruly, so I’m not sure this is a smart move.
News for Shoppers contacted the TSA, inquiring about safety issues and received this response from a spokesperson:
“The InnoCentive Challenge is about leveraging innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to find solutions to TSA’s most challenging issues – in our instance, for more effective and dynamic queue design. InnoCentive is for unique, defined challenges with a guaranteed cash reward for the successful solution. As such, the current challenge is a targeted request for inventive ideas that allows the agency to crowd source by engaging diverse and non-traditional groups of thinkers and solvers. This is becoming a widely accepted practice in federal government, as most successfully demonstrated and embraced by NASA, and is in line with the Administration’s Strategy for American Innovation.”
This response did not fully answer safety concerns, but hopefully those entering the contest are cognizant of these issues and come up with solutions that speed up the process while also keeping passenger safety at the forefront.
Consumer Press will update you on this ongoing story, so check back with us.
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