TSA (Transportation Security Administration or Thousands Stand Around)

For my first civic issue blog I want to examine the TSA. As an American that has done his fair share of traveling, I have gone through the grueling security process. So my question is how affective is the actual screening process? Are the billions of dollars that the government is throwing at the problem of nation security worth it? Basically I want to see if the TSA does their job.
After the September 11th attacks back in 2001 there was a precedence put on air security. People realized that multi-ton steel tubes flying through the air could be dangerous and act as bombs. Therefore an even greater precedence was put on air security. When you go to the airport you have to stand in a long line accompanying extremely stressed out travelers all worrying that they are going to miss their flight if it takes any longer to go through security. When you finally make it to the checkpoint you have to take off your shoes and coat. Remove your laptop and place it in its OWN bin. Then make sure that you have everything removed from your pockets including paper because some of the new full body scanners are set off if you have things in your pockets. Finally if for some reason they view you as a threat they will do a pat down or go through your bags. (Apparently I was a serious threat because they tested my hands for explosive residue.) Do I have a problem with this process? No, as long as it is effective because I have nothing to hide. I was troubled when I heard that the TSA might not be as effective as we originally thought.
In a recent investigation into the TSA by the GAO (Government Accountability Office) found that the new billion-dollar program, SPOT, is “no more effective than chance.” The SPOT programs finds targets and directs them to a police officer. After the police officer and the suspect have a chat the issue is either resolved or the person is arrested. “During a one-year period ending in September 2012, TSA records show that 37,370 passengers were targeted under the SPOT program, 2,214 were referred to a police officer and 199 were arrested. The TSA screens about 1.8 million passengers a day at 450 U.S. airports.” If you do the math that is about 657,000,000 people a year and 199 where arrested. That equals about .00003% of passengers. That does not seem very affective. Personally I do not want these 199 dangerous passengers flying, but I think that we could be more efficient than spending 1 billion dollars. The GAO recommends that it completely stop funding, “The GAO report recommends that Congress stop funding for the program.” After reading about the SPOT program I was not very confident in the TSA’s new program. Sure the old style seems moderately affective, but I still didn’t think it was great.
“Checking luggage is very nice, it looks great, taking away the breast milk of the mother of a one month old baby, that looks great,” said Rafi Sela, the president of A.R. Challenges, a transportation consulting firm based in Israel. “It does nothing for security. It’s just a show.” After reading this, while in the security checkpoint line before going on vacation this year, I immediately began to question even further the security of our airports.
I went onto the TSA website and read about their new full body scanners and all the items that they have confiscated. I read into this as basically a scare tactic. “This week in review, 37 loaded firearms confiscated.” Why would the TSA have to post this? One of two possible reasons, first it needs to publicize that it is effective and second to dissuade people from bringing contraband. I would like to see the number of guns that made it past the check point that where just in carryon luggage and did not pose a threat?
Also reading further into our TSA Sela from Israel stated that the USA does the process wrong and combines everyone into one-space which bottle necks in front of security. This creates a problem because a person could bomb outside of the security line and kill hundreds of people without ever having to get past security.
Israel employs a different tactic in their security by having multiple check point areas and reducing any choke points. In addition it is free flowing so at anytime a person can be plucked from the crowd and be screened. The Israeli’s also run their security through multiple trial runs per day where as the USA only has the TSA participate in a practice run every six or so months. Therefore some TSA agents could be on the job without every practicing how to handle a threat. The problem is that the Israeli airports handle substantially fewer passengers than American airports. In addition one of the most effective practices is profiling with eye contact and using trained security guards to pick out threats by body language. This would not be allowed in America because it would not coincide with our fourth amendment.
How do I think that we can fix the problem with the TSA. First, I do not think that we can continue to do the same thing that we have been doing. As we stay static terrorists can evolve to break our tactics and security. I think that we need to try and hold more practice runs and recruit a higher level of employee. In addition I think the TSA needs to corporate with the nation security agencies to try and target high-risk targets. Hopefully reducing the cost and increase our safety. I do not want to just sit around and wait for a terrorist to undoubtedly break the TSA and kill innocent Americans. I think I could get a weapon past TSA (which I would not do) and I’m just a college student. Could you imagine a trained terrorist?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/gao-says-there-is-no-evidence-that-a-tsa-program-to-spot-terrorists-is-effective/2013/11/13/fca999a0-4c93-11e3-be6b-d3d28122e6d4_story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/airport-security_n_4494308.html

http://www.tsa.gov

7 thoughts on “TSA (Transportation Security Administration or Thousands Stand Around)

  1. abm5278 Post author

    Frank I’m glad that you enjoyed the post. There is so much more to go into. With the amount of money that we are spending on security we need to be more effective.

  2. abm5278 Post author

    Wow I would love to pick your aunts brain. I am very interested in the matter of our countries national security.

  3. abm5278 Post author

    Mike I’m glad that you don’t think that I am crazy. I think that the TSA could be better and although we have been lucky enough to not have any attacks recently I think that they are coming soon.

  4. Michael Trowbridge

    Very interesting article. It seems like it’s hard to find the middle ground for security since people are already complaining about security procedures and yet call for tighter security because they still seem unsafe. Just to clarify, you believe that we should take actions towards the latter, correct? Certainly, there could probably be a more effective system implemented. Great post and good points!

  5. aqb5500

    I think this is well written informative post. I agreed with a lot of the things you had to say especially in regards to the bottlenecking that occurs around the security check lines. It is interesting that you focused on the money aspect. My aunt was the Director of Aviation for the New York/New Jersey Port Authority and she often discussed the money issues that occurred when attempting to make the airports secure. Overall, I agree with most of the changes you proposed. Nice work.

  6. Rachel

    Brandon, I found this blog surprisingly interesting. My family travels very frequently so I am familiar with the TSA security measure and I often wondered many of the same questions you asked and answered in your blog. Terrorist threats are a big concern today and I agree that our security should always be evolving to combat these possible dangers. It is alarming to learn that the TSA is not as effective as we think it is, though I can easily see some places where this makes sense. Last year my flight to Ireland was delayed until 4AM (no one was really in the airport) and we didn’t have to go through half the security measures (left our shoes one, liquids in our bags, there were hardly any rules enforced!) Though I am less familiar with the occurrences Israel, I think you did a good job researching and explaining. I look forward to reading your blog and learning more!

  7. Frank

    Very well written post Brandon. I think you make several great points the biggest one being that the TSA spends wayyy too much money for what it has accomplished. I think they can do a better job (or at least remain at the same level) with significantly less funding by simply training their officers better. No machine is stronger than human intuition, and it is always better to be safe than sorry. It is interesting that you didn’t really get into the whole “pat-down” controversy more because that seems to be most people’s sticking point with the TSA. I agree with you in that I have nothing to hide and would rather the security be tight than allow a terrorist on a plane. I am glad that you did not focus on the TSA’s “invasive” policies and rather focused on how cost-effective it is because this is a topic that needs to be addressed far more. I believe implementing some of the policies from Israel as well as spending less money more effectively will make the TSA more productive in protecting the country’s national security.

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