I was listening to a story on Morning Edition the other day about private pilots outraged over unnecessary searches of their planes for illegal drugs. From the article:

Young says since Jan. 1, CBP has researched 474 flights and made law enforcement contacts with 25 pilots on the ground, resulting in eight violations: seven criminal and one an FAA violation.

It goes on to say that a special interest group for private pilots approached the agency, after which the agency backed off the searches.

I certainly don’t think the agency should be searching more than they already are (or even at all). But what I found interesting, was the relatively small number of people affected,the overall success rate of the searches thus far this year (thirty-two percent) and the agency kowtowing to pressure so easily. If we were discussing drug searches of cars in Baltimore, I don’t think you’d see any agency backing off the searches. Though I guess when those searched are people who dropped $50k+ for their hobby, they talk a bit louder in Washington DC.