TSA

This post is a guide to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), covering the agency left, right and center, for better of worse. Due to the large amount of information available, I shall be updating this post all the time. Subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog or bookmark this post to view the updated versions when they arrive.

BACKGROUND & HISTORY
The Transportation Security Administration was created after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when four planes were hijacked in the United States and subsequently flown into the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania.

With the Aviation And Transportation Security Act, passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 19th 2001, the airport and mass transit security measures with the United States were completely transformed as they were directed under the supervision of a sole government agency.

Before the enactment of the TSA, security checkpoints were operated by private companies. (Several airports with the United States are still operated by private security firms, approved by TSA, which still claims a right to authority over them.)

These private security companies bid for the security contracts, with the lowest bid typically winning. (A sure way to ensure working security, I assume…)

Pre-9/11, passengers travelling by air were asked three questions at baggage check:
-”Did you pack your bags yourself?”
-”Have your bags been in your possession since you packed them?”
-”Have any unknown persons asked you to carry anything onboard?”

It wasn’t until early 1973 that the FAA began to require the screening of passengers and their carry-on baggage.

Before the enactment of TSA, a boarding pass was not needed at checkpoints, and non-travellers were allowed to enter the concourses.

The Transportation Security Administration was originally located under the offices of the U.S. Department of Transportation. In March 2003, it became a part of the Department of Homeland Security.

In July 2007, TSA unveiled the new uniforms for its Transportation Security Officers (TSO). These have been quickly criticized as “police-like”, due to the officers’ badges being metal, such as those which police carry, as opposed to the old fabric badges. TSO’s are not law enforcement officials.
[More on TSA.gov...]

MISSION STATEMENT
The Transportation Security Administration is responsible for the security of transportation systems within the United States.

The two main goals of TSA are airport security and the prevention of aircraft hijacking.

The domains under TSA supervision are highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems, ports and 450 U.S. airports. TSA works with state, local and regional partners to provide the security for these domains.

TSA currently employs some 43,000 Transportation Security Officers, down from a high of 60,000 in 2003.

PERMITTED & PROHIBITED ITEMS
If you’ve ever been to an airport in the United States, well any airport in the world when you think about it, you’ll have seen the (brief) list of general items you can and cannot bring onto an airplane. The list itself, typically accompanied with drawings or photos, is pretty self-explanatory. No firearms, no grenades or other explosives, no poisonous liquids, no knives or other sharp blades, etc…

Most normal people will be smart enough to understand that those items on an airplane are a no-no. Yet, the TSA confiscates firearms “virtually every day. In 2006, some 820 firearms were intercepted at U.S. checkpoints.”

The official list of prohibited and restricted items on airplanes can be viewed here.

Now, as the above list refers only to what you can and cannot bring onto airplanes, and as the TSA handles security operations for ALL(ish) mass transit systems within the United States, where’s the list of items for trains, busses, ferries, trams, etc…?

Do all the items also refer to other modes of transportation, or just air travel? Immense security with checkpoints and all at airports, but nothing(?) like it at train stations or bus depots?

Think back at the post-9/11 terrorist attacks in Europe. The metrolines and a doubledecker bus in London. Trains and train stations in Madrid.

How long until that happens in America, considering how the TSA’s efforts at passenger screening are focused on air passengers?

FAILURES
TSA has yet to actually catch a terrorist. Instead, it has proven itself to be very good at inconveniencing the average Joe and Jane Traveler.

Several airports have been momentarily shut down because TSO’s have let someone slip by the security screening checkpoint with “suspicious items” on their person. Please note that these people were never found.

I have a LARGE list of TSA idioticies with me, but to hit today’s deadline. I’ll get that typed up with my next update to this post.

SUCCESSES
One might argue that because there has not been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, the implementation of the Transportation Security Administration to watch over the security of mass transit in the United States has been a success. But consider this: there have only been two terrorist attacks, where the attackers were foreign nationals, within the United States, 9/11 and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. (Need to actually check if that’s true… My memory might fail me here…)

Sure, there have been many terrorism alerts and scares, but the severity and the realism of these have been somewhat dubious (i.e. the incompetence of the planners of the proposed JFK Airport pipeline attack…). Most other terrorist attacks on American soil have been by homegrown terrorists (the Unabomber, school shootings with the exception of Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, the 2000 Atlanta Summer Olympics…). Are they even called terrorist attacks?

Now, if you consider TSA’s successes, remember that there have been no attacks on mass transit the birth of TSA. Then again, there have been no credible threats either. Win-win situation for TSA…

On its website, the TSA lists a few things as its successes. These include confiscating 40 million prohibited items and assisting in the evacuation of 4,500 American citizens from Lebanon and facilitating the air evacuation of some 25,000 people from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

CRITICISMS
No agency is ever without its critics and the TSA is no exception, regardless of its young age.

Here’s a short list of the criticisms that’ve been directed at TSA since its enactment:
-Invasions of privacy
-Engaging in Security Theater
-Theft of passenger possessions from checked baggage by TSA employees
-Lavish spending by TSA officials on events not related to airport security
-Sales of items collected from passengers
-TSA employees skipping security checks
-Wasteful spending in its hiring practices
-Numerous employees found sleeping on the job
-Failure to use good judgment and common sense
[Source: Wikipedia]

Gotta love that last criticism…

THE FUTURE OF TSA
Standardizing the nation’s security checkpoints within mass transit systems is an effective way to unilaterally ensure everyone’s safety across the board. On paper.

In practice, the way security is handled today in the United States, primarily at the nation’s airports, leaves a lot to be desired.

The problem with standardizing everything under one agency is that if the agency does not work as it should, the whole system suffers. Sure, all checkpoints across America have the same equipment and all the TSO’s have the same basic training. But what if the equipment and training up to the job?

If the United States continues to standardize its mass transit security under one agency, and it will, the problems must be fixed.

When faced with an enemy which is ever-changing, the system must be prepared to answer every single threat, preemptively.

Funding must be allocated so that the equipment is up to the task, and is continuously upgraded to be one step above all possible threats, not as it operates now by banning items AFTER a possible terrorist attack.

There will always be the human factor and human error. You can’t fight a human enemy with merely technology. The training and hiring of Transportation Security Officers must be improved to include personnel best suited for the job, handing particular jobs to those with the attributes and educational background to really do the job well.

There’s plenty of work to be done. Too many screw ups, too many human error situations, too much inconvenience for the average traveller.

EXPERIENCES
This part is for you, the reader. Share your own experiences with the TSA, good and bad, by posting them in the comments section below.

As a Finnish citizen who has only flown to the United States on two occasions (Nov-Dec 2004 and Jul-Aug 2006), my personal experience is limited, and I have no experience of the time before the TSA took over.

So please, share your personal experiences with others, before and after 9/11. Do you feel safer now? Or did you prefer the way things used to be? Have you experienced any amusing or annoying situations at airports, or any mass transit locations controlled by the TSA? Let us know!

Disclaimer:
Personally, I have no beef with the Transportation Security Administration. I believe the majority of the TSO’s are decent, hard-working individuals, many of then actively doing everything they can to protect the nation’s airports and mass transit systems. That being said, for an agency tasked with such an important job, there are too many shortcomings.
I’m attempting to write an unbiased report here.

[This is still a work in progress. Any feedback, comments, or corrections will be helpful. Please use the comments section at the bottom of this post. All additional information added to this post will be duly credited.]

Sources:
TSA.gov
Wikipedia articles referring to TSA