The TSA Experience

S

Swen

IPA Consumer
I am left to wonder whether my own passive acceptance of these evolving search procedures has contributed to a potentially fatal dichotomy: what we allow TSA screeners to do in order to maximize efficiency and enhance our perception of safety, or what we really need them to do in order to preserve our rights and dignity and enhance our actual safety.
We have asked TSA to find the tools terrorists use and prevent both from boarding a passenger plane. We have unintentionally created an agency that now seeks efficiency and compliance more than any weapon or explosive.

[...]

As I watched the screening officers, I wondered what information drives their decisions. Left only to my observations, I concluded that their decisions were entirely random, and likely based upon three criteria: passenger load, staffing, and whim.
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Link

Well worth the full read if you have time. The author provides an insightful look at the TSA and summarizes the reactive nature of the TSA better than I've seen previously.
 
it is a good read, and i commend the author for their excellence in prose.

I wish that the post would travel somewhere that could promote changes within the system, but that's not gonna happen.
 
We apparently allow (or at least make little attempt to prevent) TSA screeners to steal whatever they want from passenger's luggage.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703581204574599953475913542.html

...
TSA has reduced baggage theft as it has moved from opening bags and searching by hand to running them through scanning machines on conveyor belts, limiting the number of bags handled by screeners. The agency says it has also added more surveillance cameras to baggage-screening areas.
A total of 330 TSA officers have been fired for theft since the agency's inception, a spokeswoman said.
Complaints filed with TSA about property losses—which include theft—have also dropped, down 26% this year through October compared with the same period of 2008.
Airlines say they look for patterns in theft claims filed by customers and work with police to catch thieves. Arrests in Portland, Hartford, St. Louis and New York all included Delta employees or contractors, for example, and Delta says that's because it initiated most of the investigations. In New York, for example, Delta and TSA planted a bag stuffed with electronics in the JFK baggage system and two men working together, one a TSA screener and the other a baggage handler, were videotaped swiping a computer and cellphone, then switching the luggage tags to help cover their tracks...
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I feel much safer knowing this [/sarcasm]
 
"A total of 330 TSA officers have been fired for theft since the agency's inception, a spokeswoman said.
Complaints filed with TSA about property losses—which include theft—have also dropped, down 26% this year through October compared with the same period of 2008."

And these are the people keeping...us...safe?:crazy:

Right after the 4oz liquid restriction started I was sitting in the terminal at KSAT watching two female tsa's trying on and talking about the expensive bottles of perfume confiscated from the passengers. they also walked away with some. this was when they were still doing gate check, just before the passengers boarded. the gate area was empty when they were going through the bin of goodies.
 
The TSA is a simply deplorable example of a failed organization that has done no more than hassle and let down the very people it was mandated to serve. This is the finest we have to offer?
 
The best thing ever to happen to the TSA is CrewPass. Passed through BWI twice in the past few weeks.

That truly makes the trip not having to do the shuffle... it tops keeping an airplane through the hub.

Nothing puts a scowl on my face worse at 0500 than having to do the strip search before I take control of a 220,000-350,000 pound airplane.... Irony at it's finest.
 
mooneyguy said:
Right after the 3oz liquid restriction started I was sitting in the terminal at KSAT watching two female tsa's trying on and talking about the expensive bottles of perfume confiscated from the passengers. they also walked away with some. this was when they were still doing gate check, just before the passengers boarded. the gate area was empty when they were going through the bin of goodies.
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Not that it really mattered that much, but hey, fixed. ;)
 
jknight8907 said:
Socks?

But yeah, it's nasty.
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Not much better than barefoot, IMHO.

Nasty is an understatement. Eww.

Then again, I'm kind of anal about "feet". I believe in wearing shoes (sandals count) anywhere in public. Period. I used to have to look away if I saw someone going in the airplane lav without shoes on. OMG, seriously?! Would you people walk in any other public restroom barefoot?! I can't even think about it...
 
MQAAord said:
I used to have to look away if I saw someone going in the airplane lav without shoes on. OMG, seriously?! Would you people walk in any other public restroom barefoot?! I can't even think about it...
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Double EWW! That's really nasty. Do they know what people do in there? Ugh.
 
subpilot said:
Not that it really mattered that much, but I fixed your fix. :D
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HA! All I remember is 3-3-1 or 3-1-1 rule or whatever it is they have posted at security. It's good to know they actually let you have that extra .4, phewww! Now I can actually go on vacation!!! :cool:

I fixed your sentence as well. :D (Slow here in FL, no flying to be had with this damn system going through.)
 
Stomp16 said:
HA! All I remember is 3-3-1, 3-1-1 or whatever rule it is they have posted at security. It's good to know they actually let you have that extra .4, phewww! Now I can actually go on vacation!!! :cool:

I fixed your sentence as well. :D (Slow here in FL, no flying to be had with this damn system going through.)
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LOL, I fixed your sentence too then. Tag, you're it.

(I think we are hijacking this thread.)
 
A couple of things....

Not that it really makes a difference, except to the -retentive screener looking through your bags, but is the limit "3.4 oz" or "3 oz"...

why is it that you can't bring more than this finite amount through the checkpoint, yet, on the other side, there are myriad bottles that can contain a volume much greater than this 3 oz.... in other words, how many 3 oz bottles can you and 10 friends fit in your 1 quart-sized plastic bag, and subsequently transfer into a larger bottle bought legitimately on the concourse, to create a bomb... sounds suspiciously as legal as 19 guys going through security with box cutters....

why on earth does the UNIFORM of a crew member make a difference? If you can display a badge, the screeners don't have to make a big deal of that you've got different sized liquids/gels/aerosols... nope! Of course they have to make a big deal. Funny how a controlled badge doesn't provide the same "access" as a uniform that can be pieced together by anyone on the internet. Especially since many screeners give nary a glance at the badge. "Who is this" "Delta Connection" "oh ok keep going"...

Finally, I was subject to the "puffer" in uniform on duty in Cinncinnati... I mean, c'mon. I fly an airplane, it wouldn't be that hard to kill people, so why would I really risk getting caught with explosive residue?

P.S. Hope your pat downs don't go like this:

[yt]ll6aTgTEjiY[/yt]
 
TSA and Jumpseating

Just wondering if anyone has had any recent issues with TSA not granting access to jumps without a boarding pass. I haven't traveled in a while but when I do I always go with slacks and a tie (non-uniform cause I'm dispatch) and usually stroll through the crew line. The only time I ever ran into a problem was at DFW about 6-7 months ago. The TSA gal who initially checked my ID at the crew line entrance had no questions, but the TSA dude on the other side of the metal detector (who talked as though he was on the same level as Chuck Norris) gave me all sorts of issues. The clueless TSA supervisor was called over who escorted me over to the airline ticket counter (shoes and bag still on the belt) where the ticket agent just laughed and told him to let me through.

Have they cleaned up their act lately or should I just arrive early and get a gate pass to save myself the trouble? And is it me or did the TSA seem to take a nose dive down the pooper when they got those spiffy new blue uniforms and badges?
 
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