It is so easy to become polarized when talking about the CAPPSII program.  Does it impinge on our basic rights of freedom; is it yet another Big Brother program designed to watch our every move?

Yes, we can run scared.  September 11, 2001 made all of that possible and Alaska, despite its geographical distance from continental USA is not immune.

Even Alaskans were polarized.  In May, 2004, a group of Alaskan travel agents hit the courthouse in the State Capital., Anchorage; to protest against the institution of CAPPS II.

 

Alaskans were concerned about: Being falsely arrested; being delayed – not so good when it comes to family reunions, business trips and the like.  Another major worry was the loss of the ability to travel.

CAPPS II or, to give it the full title, Computer Aided Passenger Pre-screening Process, requires all passengers boarding any aircraft in the USA, Hawaii and Alaska included, to be interrogated on things such as, date of birth, hometown and telephone number, e-mail address and other personal things, we take for granted.

This information, according to the Government, allowed a detailed check to determine if passengers were:
• High risk
• No risk, or
• Unknown
Each risk had a particular color code that represented the traveller, accessible only to government employees.

• Green flag – standard scrutiny.
• Yellow flag – additional screening at security checkpoints
• Red flag- Prevented from boarding.

Most passengers are color-coded yellow and further screening occurs. For the few who are ‘red-tagged’ for whatever reason, questioning by special officials takes place.  Those who fail to meet the basic requirements are ‘grounded’ and in some cases, arrested.

 

This process took about five seconds to complete.

After this action, an encoded rating was placed on the passenger’s boarding pass, which was relayed directly to the security checkpoints.  Any suspect was reported to the state or federal officials.

State border lines and international borders such as Canada-US and Mexico-US were heavily screened. Alaska, because of its proximity to Canada’s Yukon Territory is an example of a Canada-US border.

 

What concerned the Alaskan travel agents about the CAPPS II program in Alaska was the risk of losing business because it; meant spying on their fellow citizens and many of the ‘red flags’ used in the system were commonplace for villages within the state that did not have specific street or street addresses.

 

Many Canadians travel in and out of Alaska frequently, as they do to other US states, in the course of business and leisure.  The agents pointed out that it was illegal for non-US citizens to declare private information such as bank records and the like. They were concerned that the Canadians would be ‘red-flagged.’

Alaskans, as did their interstate counterparts did not take too kindly to this process and deemed it a raid on their civil liberties.  The whole CAPPSII process was questioned by those involved in civil liberties.

Many Americans, some prominent, were grounded by the system – things as innocent as not remembering bank details ‘red-flagged’ a few.  One such luminary grounded was Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2004.

 

A year later, the CAPPS II Process was replaced by Secure Flight.  Even this tested the privacy and liberties of citizens.  Secure Flight became fully operational in 2010.

 

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