Security Checkpoints Welcome! You are encouraged to register with the site and login (for free). When you register, you support the site and your question history is saved.Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in security checkpoints that are a waste of time. We train and staff security staff for the purpose of searching incoming automobiles, but we search fewer than five percent of those automobiles. We might as well disband the security checkpoints. The cost is wasted, and there is a ninety-five percent chance that an illegal substance would get through the checkpoint anyway. Council member: Even if we granted that those odds didn't justify the costs--which I disagree with--you seem not to recognize that the presence of the checkpoint itself deters some people who would bring in illegal substances from doing so. The council member responds to the citizen's argument by rejecting the citizen's argument while proposing that the percentage of incoming automobiles that are checked should be raised casting doubt on whether the citizen has correctly understands the chances that an illegal substance could pass through the checkpoint objecting to the approach the citizen has used to argue against the checkpoints defending the current system and further pointing out a benefit of the system that the citizen has failed to mention shifting the discussion from the argument at hand to an attack on the personal qualities of the citizen Review Answer