TSA's Pre-Check Increases The Cost To Taxpayers From $11.21 Per Screening To $1,121 Per Passenger
Excellent piece by TSA News Blog's numbers guy, Bill Fisher, on the "some animals are more equal than others" TSA "Pre-Check" program, which comes at considerable cost to those of us who haven't paid in hopes of having our rights a little less violated:

With 644 lanes in operation, Pre-Check reduces the number of lanes available to regular fliers by 8%, leaving 593 lanes for regular customers. In terms of inefficiency, the Pre Check lanes process roughly 33,000 of the 45.7 million passengers passing through security in an average month, or less than 1% (0.07%) of all travelers. There are 548 million passengers per year going through these airports. Pre-Check has handled 7.5 million passengers in 19 months, or 32,895 a month.

The most unconscionable example of the TSA's "some animals are more equal than others" policy is the Pre-Check in Las Vegas. In keeping with that city's reputation for pandering to the wealthy and the TSA's policy of class discrimination, the sole Pre-Check lane in Las Vegas is exclusively for use by First Class passengers.

...Since the Pre-Check lanes have the same operating cost in terms of equipment and staff but process less than 1% of passengers, Pre-Check increases the cost 100 times per screening compared to a standard security lane. This means that for every 100 passengers screened at regular checkpoint lanes, only one is screened in the Pre-Check lane. So rather than an average distributed cost of $11.21 per screening, the Pre-Check cost to taxpayers soars to $1,121 per passenger.

In terms of inconvenience, the reduced volume in Pre-Check lanes shunts regular travelers to the remaining lines. In the case of LAX, 3 of the maximum available 32 lanes (9.3% of the lanes) are limited to Pre-Check passengers. If only 75% of the lanes are available (24 lanes), that percentage increases to 12.5 % being unavailable to regular customers. This will add over 8,000 people to each lane each year when three-quarters of all lanes are open.

Nationwide, the TSA elite lanes remove 51 lanes from an optimistic estimate of 662 in operation, leaving only 611 to handle the 542 million regular passengers each year, increasing the load on the remaining lanes by 60,000 passengers each. This is further aggravated by disproportionate use by travelers: there are ample field reports of the Pre-Check lines at smaller airports going virtually empty.

It is becoming increasingly evident that this program is an attempt to undo some of the damage done by TSA Administrator John Pistole with his unpopular scanning and pat-down policies. The TSA is trying to create the illusion of progress without delivering a tangible benefit to travelers.