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What’s really going on at the TSA — and why should you care?

December 11, 2009

curtainIs the Transportation Security Administration protecting the nation’s transportation systems? Or is it a hopelessly incompetent federal agency that harasses innocent air travelers and should be privatized as soon as possible?

I brought up the subject in November and after the accidental release of an unredacted TSA manual earlier this week, it seems everyone is talking about it.

So let’s talk about it. Actually, let’s talk with Suzanne Sherwood, who is one of the travelers mystified by the ways of the TSA.


Here’s her story:

They have let me and my companion swap passports — inadvertently — and not noticed that names and photos didn’t match the tickets or us. They have not noticed or questioned my name change. They have confiscated a $66 tube of hand cream, discarded four unopened jars of Ikea lingonberry preserves and a tiny dab of shaving gel because it was in a 5 oz. tube and not a 3 oz. container.

And yet they let a heavy 6-inch jacknife passed through the X-rays unnoticed [in my carry-on].

Keeping us guessing? You bet.

Suzanne knows a thing or two about government bureaucracy. She’s a retired federal employee, and has seen the best — and the worst — of government.

Yes, TSA is inconsistent, unpredictable — to to the point where it drives air travelers crazy. It told me that’s part of the plan. TSA wants to keep the bad guys guessing. That’s understandable.

What isn’t clear to me is why it would allow items that present a clear security risk (like a knife) in someone’s checked luggage. For the answer, I bring in someone who I’ll call TSA Insider:

Most of the screeners I’ve worked with have become very complacent. I used to work in the training department. Most of the screeners would just let the X-ray belt run and not look at the screen. When I approached them about it, they’d said ‘oh well.’

There are a lot of ways things can get through the checkpoints. There is a group that TSA calls the Red Team. They are people that go around the country and test the airports. Most of the time the airports are giving a heads up when the Red Team will be coming around.

Some of the time they get caught. Most of the time they get through.

Look around next time you fly. See how many screeners are young — between the ages of 18 and 24.

In other words, the TSA says this inconsistency is deliberate. But that’s not necessarily true.

Given all that, should you care about airport security in general, and the release of a “secret” TSA manual in particular?

Yes — and no.

Yes, we should be worried about security. It’s confusing. It’s a mess. It can be better, and for what we’re paying for airport security ($2.50 per segment, which will increase to an undisclosed amount in 2012) we deserve better.

But let’s talk about the manual. I covered it earlier this week, and there’s been a lot of hyperventilating in Congress and at least one “passenger rights” group about the issue. This is nothing more than political posturing.

I’ve taken the time to read the entire manual, and I have yet to see one piece of information that puts the air traveler in harm’s way. Here’s how the TSA described the leak on its own blog:

This document was not the everyday screening manual used by Transportation Security Officers at airport checkpoints. Thorough analysis has determined the flying public and aviation community are safe and our systems are secure. TSA is confident that screening procedures in place remain strong.

Now, I hate being spun as much as the next reporter, but I have to tell you that TSA’s blog team has a pretty decent track record for being candid and transparent. If there were a threat, they would have responded differently.

I flew to Washington the day after this story broke, and there was no sign that TSA officers were at a heightened state of readiness. If anything, they looked relaxed.

Air travelers will ultimately judge TSA by one criteria: Nothing happens. No 9/11 repeat. Everything else is details.

Should we be worried? Sure. The agency can run a tighter ship. But it would take another 9/11 to change the TSA.

Let’s hope it never comes to that.

(Photo: Nick Sherman/Flickr Creative Commons)

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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28 comments

  • Joe Farrell

    The Tub Stacking Administration is pure theater. There are so many ways to do damage to an airplane, and so many people who would fight back now, that a terrorist attack by air is remote. Nothing the TSA does would have stopped September 11th – they could have done what they did before and banned all the things that are banned now [like boxcutters] and been every bit as safe at a fraction of the cost. Secure Flight [matching names and ID] is a joke – it is so easy to get a false identity [note: NOT just a fake id] – do you think a terrorist group can and has false identities that pass muster at international air travel checkpoints?

    The goal is to catch bad guys trying to do harm to people = simple as that. Law Enforcement has been doing that for thousands of years. It involves competent well trained, experienced and educated people observing others. Not mindless automatons enforcing mindless rules that do nothing to enhance safety.

  • Koala

    Reinforced cockpit doors are the single biggest change that prevents aircraft takeovers. Even if the cabin were commandeered, the pilots would be able to declare an emergency and land. Another 9/11 type hijacking and catastrophic crash into a building is extremely unlikely.

    I think the biggest threat is explosives, especially in cargo not associated with passengers. The if the TSA’s “security theater” is any indication, they probably also do a terrible job screening for explosives.

  • tom

    I fly almost weekly out of WPB. They have 2 concourses. Why does TSA have in excess of 35 people working at each concourse. I count them now as something to do when standing in line and have seen as many as 40. Usually they have about 3/4 standing around. I could only guess how many are in offices and cubby holes that we do not see.
    Just seems odd so many people with so few actually doing anything.

  • Ames

    I think the 6 inch knife was in carry on baggage not checked baggage. It is perfectly ok to put all sorts of tools and nasty knives in checked baggage but not even the 1 inch knife on a Micro Leatherman is supposed to pass thru in carry on baggaage. I know, I foolishly lost one to the TSA, because I forgot to take it out of my handbag.

  • http://www.stuartgustafson.com Stuart Gustafson

    I agree that NO ONE wants another 9/11. But who thinks that those working at Thousands Standing Around (TSA) would have prevented the box cutters being put aboard by screened employees. The secured cockpit doors are the biggest deterrent, not running my shoes through the X-Ray machine.

    If the 3 ounce rule is to prevent a large amount of a liquid explosive — what if 20 people grouped together on the same flight and all of them brought several 3 ounce bottles of “something” with them on the flight — would that be noticed by TSA? No.

    What if I had a part of a disabling device that by itself looks harmless; and so do 19 other people traveling with me — but when put together in the bathroom as we wait for the plane ….. Would TSA notice that? No.

    Perhaps the real purpose of TSA was “we’ll Try Something Absurd.”

    p.s. I don’t feel any safer flying today that I did 5 years ago or 10 years ago.

  • Jose

    I am active duty military and travel a lot. The problem with the TSA is tri-fold. One, they need to adjust their payscale, that is why you see all these young people with no expierence. I looked at TSA as a source of employment once I leave the military and they are not going to get people with the expierence and dedication required with what they pay. Two, they need to implement physical readiness standards, look around next time you go to the airport and you will know what I mean. Three, they are in serious need of a good PR department.

    Bottom line, TSA screens are supposed the be the front line defense in safeguarding our airports. Are they up to the task? Sad to say the answer is no. The whole 3oz bottle thing is a joke. You need people who know what they are looking at, is it shampoo or something that can be dangerous.

    I am not advocating that we turn TSA into a “Blackwater” outfit. But, some training would not hurt.

  • Ian

    One thing I will note is that the general manner of the TSA in airports has improved. When I first moved to the US in 2006 it was a much more shouty, unpleasant environment. They seem to have taken steps to try and make it a little less stressful, which I appreciate, despite the crazy nature of the whole shebang to begin with.

    Twice now I have had the dreaded SSSS (both at Newark, oddly) but to my delight, it actually ended up getting me through the checkpoint quicker and in both cases the TSA person doing the search was very polite and professional.

    I have gone through DCA with liquids accidentally more times than I can count and nobody has noticed. But when I was one of three passengers flying out of Asheville one afternoon, everything was scrutinised!

  • Adrian Shadowmoss

    I can only speak for Hartsfield Atlanta International when I say that one only needs to go through security there to see the absolute absurdness of the TSA. I think the common vernacular is “shuckin’ and jivin.” Don’t believe me, just try it every week (or 46 times per year), at different hours and you’ll see for yourself. This is not to criticize but to highlight that “security” (and I use that term lightly) is a farce there. Three people in one line, back-to-back go through with shoes on only to have a TSA “officer” remand another to go back and take his/her shoes off! Talk about “chatting it up!” People going through while half of the security team is talking to each other, the screener (who is new that day) not knowing what to do when a bag goes through and calling for another to see what’s going on only to have that one stymied also.
    As you day, Chris, they may just be another bureaucratic nightmare now run by even more incompetents.
    God help this republic…
    APS

  • Dave Burge

    Just once it would be nice for Taking Something Always (TSA) to search one of my checked bags and NOT steal something. And, of course, filing a claim for the stolen item(s) is simply an exercise in futility–claims are always denied for “…no legally sustainable grounds upon which a finding of liability can be based on the part of TSA.”

  • http://smartcog.blogspot.com Brett Self

    I don’t feel any safer either. In Romania’s Otopeni airport, it didn’t surprise me when I placed my coat on the x-ray belt and watched it pass through with an incindiary device in the pocket. When it passed through Schipol’s security, I was a little more surprised. When it passed through Atlanta’s security, I was relieved because I needed it to light a cigarette. In Schipol, the lady behind me had to throw out her bottled water. My thoughts were, “How is she going to put out my fire?” Of course I’d never do such a thing because I enjoy living and wish to continue in living’s pursuits at least 50 more years.
    When the TSA was formed, I applied for the job. Hell, I have a Criminal Justice degree, surely I’d be a consideration. Over the course of four years I updated my application and followed up. I’ve never heard back from them. They must have read my resume and decided I was too intelligent to work for them. Hey, I can eat just as many jelly doughnuts as the next guy!

  • Nobody

    Why doe TSA act like they do? Go to http://www.prisonexp.org/ They’re still trying to figure it out.
    Do you think a group of terrorists would go to the trouble and mix each 3 oz container of liquid explosives after security and before boarding? Why not get a distrought American baggage handler to aspire to something better than stealing valuables from luggage?
    Everyone knows the security measures in place prevent another 9/11–until another 9/11 happens, using some other methods that current security misses. Then, the energies spent by the alphabet soup of federal agencies are on fixing blame–at the lowest levels.

    Has any stranger given you anything to bring onboard?
    Has your luggage been in your control since you packed it?

    Here lies freedom of all
    Lost for the rights of suspects
    Shot down in the crossfire between
    Government Control and Political Correctness
    RIP
    Nobody was faster

  • Shari

    The TSA is a farce. It’s a show, designed to give the illusion of security and safety. I’ve only had a rare few encounters with agents who acutally seemed to care, much less seem happy to be at work. I don’t feel any safer now that the TSA is running airport security than I did back in the day when non-passengers were allowed to go up to the gate (to see people off or greet people arriving.)

    @Tom – ironic. So many airports have a lack of personnel, and then there are airports like you describe, where there are too many people.

    @Ian – in my experience, it is the smaller airports that have the worst TSA folk. I have family in New Mexico, so whenever I visit, I have to fly through Albuquerque (ABQ). The TSA agents are amongst the rudest around; they’re far worse than the average agent at JFK or LGA. I’m a very careful packer, and never have any problems in other airports. But ABQ? Off to the side, my bag being physically searched, my electronics being physically thrown around, and me being verbally berated by the agent. Or other similar experiences.
    I think that agents in smaller airports compensate for not working at a large, “important” airport by abusing their unquestionable powers. It gives them a rush.

    I’m so glad to be protected by a group of mostly incompetent idiots.

  • karen

    I’m a 64 year old woman born in the US. Unfortunately, I’ve had 3 knee replacements and a hip replacement, all of which sets off all the alarms. I truly resent the way the TSA “inspects” senior and disabled people in wheelchairs. I’ve been felt all over my body by an inspector’s open hand, had my wheelchair pillow xrayed (something they aren’t supposed to do according to the manual), forced to get out of my wheelchair and try to walk unaided through the screening area when I could barely stand, had my hands dusted for bomb residue, and was told that “If I could tell her what a terrorist looked like, it would make her job easier.” There is so much pain involved in joint replacements that NO ONE would do it if they didn’t have a strong desire to LIVE. This is all just useless harrassment of folks who can’t fight back. And it absolutely doesn’t make anyone safer.

  • Mary

    I agree with Jose….TSA screeners don’t make a lot of money, so you see that in the quality of the screeners. They are one of the few agencies still on pay banding as well…
    However I must say that I find that the screeners are more attentive in smaller airports than at major airports which make me nervous. When I fly overseas, I find those airport screeners are more stringent than in the US…(ie Heathrow, Frankfurt and Charles DeGaulle airports), perhaps they should learn a lesson or two from them.

  • Brian

    Frequent business traveler here. TSA does a great job in not letting me through the line when I am about to miss my flight. They also do a great job when I try to enter the security line under the rope even when no one is in line. Yes folks, it is necessary for me to start at the beginning of the rope maze, even when no one is in line. TSA also does a great job at never detecting any of the cosmetics or fluids that I now refuse to remove from my bag. That’s right, not once in the last year of at least 20 trips have I been checked for additional screening.

    There is no way this department will prevent terrorism given the structure and practices of the organization today.

  • LeeAnne

    Count me in with the folks who think TSA is a joke. My poor 74-yr-old mother has been a victim of TSA so many times it’s almost laughable. Two years ago she had a 4-oz jar of CHOCOLATE sauce taken from her by what looked like a teenager manning the scanner. She’d bought the sauce at a winery in Northern CA, and wanted to bring it home to give as a gift. Later that year she had her eyelash curler swiped by a male TSA agent who had no interest in hearing what that unusual implement was…he wouldn’t listen, he just took it. What was she gonna do with it? Threaten to curl the pilot’s eyelashes? I can see it now: this petite, grey-haired grandmother standing in the aisle shouting, “Fly me to Havana or I’ll make you beautiful!!!”

    Earlier this year she had a hip replacement, so she now sets off the metal detectors. She carries a medical card explaining it, but every time we’ve flown together since then (several times now) she has been wanded in a MOST intrusive fashion – let’s just say people pay big money for the type of intimate physical contact these TSA agents have been perpetrating on her. Every inch of her body is touched, either by a stranger’s hands, or by a big metal implement.

    In July we were returning from an international trip, with a connecting flight in Atlanta. The airport personnel in Copenhagen were perfectly pleasant – read her card, did a quick wanding, let her pass. In Atlanta, re-entering the secure area after going through customs, naturally she set off the alarm and was pulled aside to be wanded. The woman who wanded her was rude, unpleasant, snippy, and made her stand there for almost 30 minutes, with no shoes on, on a dirty floor, and wouldn’t let her sit down…and this was less than three months post-surgery, so standing for that long was painful for her.

    When I attempted to intervene and get them to allow her to sit, or to at least give her some water (she was made to wait so long in the heat, she was getting dehydrated) I was told to stay back and NOT TALK TO HER! Huh?? Since when does having a metal hip make one a criminal that may not be SPOKEN TO, even by her family? She was in tears by the time the ordeal was over. We have resolved never to pass through Atlanta airport again.

    @Jose – I had to laugh at your “lack of physical readiness” comment — great euphamism! I’ll go out on a limb and say what I think you mean: I too saw literally dozens of TSA agents standing around doing nothing, and the vast majority of them were overweight — some substantially — and didn’t look like they could chase a terrorst more than 10 feet before keeling over in cardiac arrest. My MOTHER with her new hip could probably run faster than many of them. And this is our front line?

  • sue

    I’ve only been stopped for extra screening once, and it was when I had purchased a last minute Priceline ticket when I realized I could get time off to go to a friend’s wedding in Maine. The last minute booking triggered security, which was fairly painless on the way up to Maine, but coming back I had an early flight which required me to get up at 3am and drive across Maine to get to Portland by 5am. So I was quite grumpy when, as one of about 10 passengers in the airport at the time, I got pulled for security screening and my underwire bra set off the metal detector. The female TSA agent pushed at my bra frame and asked me if it was an underwire and I asked testily if she’d like to see it. In retrospect I realize it was a pretty unstressful screening, and I regret my grumpiness, especially when I realized later that Portland was where a couple of the 9/11 terrorists got through (and this was almost exactly a year after that).

  • Aimee

    I’m with Brian and LeeAnn. So far, the TSA has protected me by asking me to remove my underwire bra and accusing me of having explosives in my backpack until they realize they forgot to calibrate their machine. Turns out I didn’t have explosives after all. And I’m especially grateful that they were there to protect everyone from my 6 year old daughter. After all, if that supervisor hadn’t run her hands over my daughter’s sternum, she would never have known for sure that there really were wires holding her sternum together from her multiple heart surgeries. Thank heavens it wasn’t from a bomb strapped to her chest like she originally thought. After all, what do doctors know about filling out TSA approved medical cards?
    I’m more afraid of the TSA agents than anyone else except flight attendants. Flying is too scary for me any more.

  • Ames

    My worst experience with the TSA was because I did NOT set off any alarms. I was randomly chosen for a screening – no dreaded SSSS boarding pass – and must have gotten a trainee. I had on absolutely no metal. Elastic waistband running suit, no zipper pockets, jogging bra with no fasteners or adjustments, no jewelry except my visible watch and earrings. She could not believe that NOTHING would react to her wand so she kept touching her own badge to be sure it was working. After 10 minutes of that, she patted then squeezed everywhere – my physician does not do a breast exam as thoroughly as she did. Next she wanted me to show her the inside of my waist band and stuck her hands way too far in my pants. Right about now another agent called the supervisor finally to end this silliness. The agent was so angry that I had no metal for her to find that she started yelling at the supervisor. I just wanted to get home and get a hot shower. BTW I am mid fifties, with white hair and have eaten far fewer donuts than this agent. If it were to have come to a chase, I’d have caught the terrorist before she would.

  • Anon

    Scariest experience I had was when I discovered I had accidentally brought a full clip of 15 9mm bullets through security screening. For safety, I keep the magazine separate from the (legally carried) empty gun when I’m in the USA and forgot I had put it in my briefcase/carry on. I discovered the clip when I was waiting at the gate for my plane. Immediately deposited just the bullets in the trash after wiping them down, then promised myself I would come clean if the terminal were shut down if and when the cleaning people found them in the trash. I had visions of long interviews with the powers that be, but it all came to nothing. But I have had deodorant confiscated….

  • http://tims-boot.blogspot.com Tim

    Comment here from an international traveller (Australian). I am a medium to big guy – about 185cm and 105kg. Certainly not in the humongous range but big enough across the shoulder that I have learnt to cross my arms across my chest and pull in my shoulders when going through a electronic screener/metal detector. Otherwise I risk my shoulders bumping the side of the screen, causing it to go off and sending me to the “discombobulation area” for a Therapeutic Slackers of America rub down. At a recent trip through MCO the TSA guard shouted at me to go back through the metal detector without crossing my shoulders. His argument “I do not want you hiding nothing from me”. So here we have a very expensive metal and bomb detecting machine that can be fooled (according to this security professional) by an Australian that scrunches up his shoulders. Either the machine is dud or the man was an idiot. I vote man

    If you would also like to read a story about how I defeated the TSA and saved the world from a dangerous jar of olives check out this blog post

  • Glenn Fried

    In October I flew out of PHL. Things were pretty backed up at the security chekpoint upstairs from the US Air check in. So what did TSA do? They opened a line for FIRST CLASS PASSENGERS! These passengers pay the airline for certain priveleges, not TSA. TSA is supposed to be non-discriminating. After one disguruntled comment about it, I was subjected to a search and my shaving kit, which only contained toiletries, no razor, was run through the screening machine three times and given a visual check. Of course nothing out of order was found.

  • Karthik

    An interesting post by a former police officer on TSA’s lack of training, and more importantly, DATA about “random” screenings.

    http://www.hlswatch.com/2009/10/15/%E2%80%9Cdo-i-have-the-right-to-refuse-this-search%E2%80%9D/

  • ED

    You noted “and should be privatized as soon as possible?”

    What? Privatization of ‘security forces’ in Italy is what Mussolini did. That is the epitome and framework of Italian Fascism. Mussolini corporatized most of Italy’s public works along with the security forces. Then state sponsored corporations could sic the security agency on corporations who were competing with them – and on the people supporting them. Mussolini called it ‘Corporo-fascism’. ie: let the private companies do the dirty work for you in subduing the nation. It’s easier because private companies don’t have to answer to ANYONE about abuses.

    Anyone who even mentions privatizing a security force as large and powerful as this is asking for all hell to break loose in this country. You need to brush up on history. Seriously.

  • cjr

    ED, I think the argument here is that where there are private companies working under TSA’s rules, such as SFO, you’re seeing a lot fewer complaints compared to most other airports where you’re dealing directly with agents employed by TSA.

    Basically, those working for contractors generally seem to actually care about the job they are doing, and actually have to report to somebody.

    Meanwhile, TSA has shown time and again that they just don’t give a damn about passengers, and prefer to treat us like criminals. Further proof of this is their recent action to kill the contractor program: if it works, get rid of it to piss people off even more. :(

  • http://www.cogitamusblog.com/2011/02/life-in-the-usa-a-photo-album.html Lisa Simeone

    Sorry, I can’t go along with privatizing. I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference.

    First of all, we’re paying billions of dollars to this agency — $8.1 billion in the new budget. Shouldn’t we be getting something for this?? I know my tax dollars have already funded slaughter, maiming, and torture in two wars, along with countless other hideous and immoral things, so I’m not a purist; I get it that a lot of our money is wasted and spent on things I deplore. But I’m not willing to roll over every single time.

    Second, the point is that our rights are being violated. It doesn’t make anything better that they’re violated by a private secruity firm or a government one. And good grief, look at what private contractors have done in Iraq and Afganistan. Yeah, that’s worked out real well.

  • ED

    You mean like Blackwater?
    Private companies working security under US contract get a pass on being sued or brought to court for abuses. Not only that but they can keep those abuses private under corporate laws in the US.
    Private company employees working security under US contract have even raped their co-workers and the women were enjoined by the courts to not say anything.
    Private companies answer to no one.
    http://agonist.org/20071210/victim_gang_rape_cover_up_by_u_s_halliburton_kbr

    http://exiledonline.com/blackwater-stop-acting-surprised/
    The Blackwater defectors have filed a sworn deposition in federal court that Blackwater zapped Iraqis at random, aimed to kill Muslims anywhere and any time they could, paid little Baghdadi girls a dollar a head, so to speak, for sexual services and just generally behaved like cartoon baddies.

    And these are the kind of people who own the kind of ‘business’ who would go for the TSA contract – and you want them turned loose on Citizens who would have no recourse under ANY current government contract to protect themselves from abuse?
    Again- look up Corporo-fascism.
    And if you say ‘that can’t happen here’ – then you are just like the Italians who said the same thing when Mussolini was going for power.

  • http://www.cogitamusblog.com/2011/02/life-in-the-usa-a-photo-album.html Lisa Simeone

    Ed, I’m agreeing with you.

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