"It makes no sense for airlines to hire security screeners--they can't do a proper risk analysis--and a lot of sense for the government to step in to fill that role."

Although government agencies like the FBI and NTSB are superb investigators who will have a sense of threat levels, they do not have a stake in directly protecting you. They cannot be sued or enjoined to protect you, personally, no matter what. After the bomber gets by the minimum-wage drooler - or the bright and earnest lady who is distracted by yet another idiot who has not heard he can't bring six carry-ons and wants to argue - it's going to be just too bad.

Airlines have the ability to do these threat analyses, because the problem is one of simple physics: there is a set number of ways to do harm to a passenger, many passengers, a plane, many planes and targets on the ground. The problems really lie in what to do about each scenario - and the feds, in charge of air traffic control, are saddled with outcome-based testing in their employment measures.

In the case of air travel, you are prevented from being responsible for yourself by government policies that also fail to be responsible for you. In the case of large banks allowing identity theft, it's bank policy leaving you out in the cold.

Four years ago, someone inside my bank stole my address, account number, my wife's birthday and drivers license numbers from a check she wrote at a store. They used it to buy prepaid cell phones from several carriers and a $1000 prepaid debit card, and prepaid travel among other purchases.

I notified the bank which made good the losses within a day or two, even though they sent me a letter saying under Federal law banks need not make up looses due to identity theft.

I also tried to file a police report in my local suburban Los Angles police station. They could not have been less interested, saying they dont investigate nonviolent property crimes. The local police did tell me that cell phone companies refuse to cooperate with police and generally repay victims when they must.

Police in another LA suburb where the cell phone stores were located also refused to investigate my theft.

The one guy who really helped was a VP of the debit card company. I tracked down the company and its officers in Oklahoma and left a message at 4 am on his office voicemail..telling him I had a theft, his company was involved and I was going to the FBI office in LA that morning. Would he like to help before the FBI was notified?

He called back, got his security chief on the case and they blocked the cards... soon after, they got an angry call from a woman in Memphis whose card didn't work at bank ATM. The company told her they had a computer glitch and offered to meet her the next day at a Memphis bank to replace the "faulty" debit card. When she came to the meeting the next day, the Secret Service arrested her.

About two years later, the bank sent a letter saying that one of their employees had been the identity thief and had victimized many customers. The bank apologized and offered us three months free service if we signed up for their identity protection plan.

Amy,

It was Bank of America, and we still use them.

In rereading my post, I see I did not give the bank the credit they deserved for handling our problem so quickly and so well. The bank really was very helpful and saved us from a lot of trouble and inconvenience. I think they did a good job of recovering from a bad situation.

Mike