A growing watch list

Watch List

The (Over)Efficacy of Watch Lists

Especially since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11th, 2001, national agencies have been extremely watchful of individuals entering and leaving the country, as well as anyone boarding an airplane within the United States or bound for the United States. This has led to the development of terrorist "watch lists," which are essentially lists of individuals under various levels of suspicion from the government as possible terrorists, or in some way related to terrorist activities. These people range from those that are merely more heavily scrutinized by security agencies and officers to those that are entirely barred from flight -- and these individuals are often detained indefinitely as well. With several narrowly-avoided terrorist incidents aboard aircrafts in the past decade despite increased security measures, it is clear the measures such as watch lists are necessary, but it is questionable how effective these watch lists themselves are.

TIDE, or the Terrorists Identities Datamart Environment, is a continuously updated list of suspected terrorists that receive special scrutiny during travel, or are not allowed to travel at all (DeYoung 2007). While the fact that over thirty thousand names are on this list may be comforting to some, in many ways this number is simply a reflection of the sheer volume of information collected and analyzed regarding terrorism and terrorists, as it tales very little in the way of suspicion to add someone to the list (DeYoung 2007). While the saying, "better safe than sorry" definitely applies to this situation, the inefficiencies caused by maintaining such a huge list of individuals without better information are quite extensive.

For example, the story of Michael Hicks demonstrates the wasted energy and lack of efficacy that these watch lists can have in many instances. There is Michael Hicks on the watch list for some reason; though less than ten percent of people on the watch list are actually United States citizens, apparently this Mr. Hicks is one of them (Alvarez 2010). Eight-year-old Michael Hicks from Clifton, NJ, is a different person altogether, yet he was first patted down at the airport when he was two years old and he continues to cause travel delays for his family now that he is eight and a proud member of the cub scouts simply because his name -- or really, the name of another individual that happens to have the same name as Mikey -- is "on the list" (Alvarez 2010). Because the list errs towards the side of being over-cautious, many individuals that are not under suspicion have been unduly delayed, sometimes repeatedly, and the lack of flexibility in the training and procedures of Transportation Safety Administration personnel when dealing with individuals who appear to be on the terrorist watch list suggests that this problems will continue for many years to come.