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Homeland Security Cuts Causing Extreme Delays And Missed Flights (chicagotribune.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Chicago Tribune reports on "a growing backlash over extremely long airport security lines," which the Transportation Security Administration is blaming on a loss of 4,622 screeners. "In the past three years, the TSA and Congress cut the number of front-line screeners by 4,622 -- or about 10% -- on expectations that an expedited screening program called PreCheck would speed up the lines. However, not enough people enrolled for TSA to realize the anticipated efficiencies."
Passengers in security lines waited one hour and 45 minutes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, with other airports reporting wait times of 90 minutes, and crowded lines "snaking up and down escalators, or through food courts, and into terminal lobbies." Some flights have even delayed their take-offs just to wait for more of their passengers to clear security. (One Dallas-Fort Worth flight waited 13 minutes, resulting in 23 more passengers who made it onboard -- while another 29 passengers still had to be rescheduled for later flights.) "We encourage people to have the appropriate expectations when they arrive at airports,â said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Friday, saying the screenings were necessary to ensure passenger safety. "Contemplate increased wait times as you travel."
Johnson also said the TSA would increase the use of overtime, hire 768 new officers as soon as mid-June, and use more threat-sniffing dogs. Meanwhile, a TSA computer glitch caused 3,000 pieces of luggage to miss their flight in Phoenix, prompting city officials to investigate replacing the TSA with a private security contractor.
Passengers in security lines waited one hour and 45 minutes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, with other airports reporting wait times of 90 minutes, and crowded lines "snaking up and down escalators, or through food courts, and into terminal lobbies." Some flights have even delayed their take-offs just to wait for more of their passengers to clear security. (One Dallas-Fort Worth flight waited 13 minutes, resulting in 23 more passengers who made it onboard -- while another 29 passengers still had to be rescheduled for later flights.) "We encourage people to have the appropriate expectations when they arrive at airports,â said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Friday, saying the screenings were necessary to ensure passenger safety. "Contemplate increased wait times as you travel."
Johnson also said the TSA would increase the use of overtime, hire 768 new officers as soon as mid-June, and use more threat-sniffing dogs. Meanwhile, a TSA computer glitch caused 3,000 pieces of luggage to miss their flight in Phoenix, prompting city officials to investigate replacing the TSA with a private security contractor.
I expect that the children playing security theater in the airport will grow up and go away. Maybe find something useful or meaningful to do with their time. Is that not an "appropriate expectation"?
This isn't trolling - it's truth. If enough people simply stop flying, it will change. Not only the airlines but mega corporations like Disney will have their way.
Last time I flew was - holy cannoli - 2002. I'm a little shocked at that because I really didn't think about it until I typed it. I still go on vacations, and even though I love the act of flying, Idon't miss the modern flying experience very much.
And it's pretty simple. If you still fly when you don't absolutely have to - you are okay with all of this.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
We need to get the government out of the passenger screening business and let the airports do this screening. Airports actually try to do a good job serving airport customers. And airports will be no worse than the TSA at detecting threats and providing security.
The worse it gets for travelers at airports, the easier it will be to get rid of the TSA.
As wait times approach infinity, security gets better and better! How many terrorists are willing to wait more than 100 years, for example? Heck, most give up after only 10 years.
End the bullshit security theater. Do enough to keep serious explosives off (the crotch-bomber was no threat to the flight as a whole), basic metal detector.
People know now hot to cooperate with hijackers, and have started reacting appropriately (beating the fuck out of anyone attempting it). Cockpit doors are locked now. Those two changes alone were all that were really needed to improve airline security.
Taking away bottles of water and baby formula, stopping people with pocketknives, making everyone take off their shoes and gut half their luggage for the xrays are all a waste of time. They have caught NO THREATS yet. They have failed every single test to actually sneak stuff through.
End it.
100,000 passengers through screening, 0 found with contraban. If 99.9999999999% of passengers are just trying to get to their destination, is it really worth wasting everyone's time with screening? Is the fear of one guy with a bomb or nailclippers or a lighter really so great as to delay everyone? Sounds like the terrorists have won.
FTA:
"the screenings were necessary to ensure passenger safety"
I rather suspect the screenings are 'necessary' for two reasons having nothing to do with passenger safety:
-- To further grow the thriving empire that is government-mandated security theatre, so more people can draw bigger salaries and have better job security as they pretend to contribute to the good of society.
-- To expand and reinforce among the population the knee-jerk response of obedience to the dictates of authority, regardless of the pointlessness and impracticality of said dictates.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
how much longer are we going to put up with this ineffective security theater (search security breach TSA) that is but a total waste of time?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
It's as if the police union are on strike and the city is gridlocked because there are no cops to guide people through intersections. No one feels comfortable reminiscing the days when mere traffic lights (common sense small delay procedures like airport metal detectors) managed the intersections, And things moved along. It's time to roll this shit back. The problem is that no one has the courage to do it. We've been led on by stages.
1. Everybody 'needs' insurance to operate. So the shots are called by the most spineless of individuals, the decision-makers at insurance companies who, far from public view or accountability, indicate that they'd prefer to make some change that would seriously impact quality of life. When life sucks just a little more each time, they shrug. Life is not sucking for them.
2. In an atmosphere of politics driven by fear, only the most twistedly paranoid persons run the show. Paranoid security freaks have comitted us to one Faustian bargain after another. No one has ever admitted that any 'safety' measure was excessive and uncalled-for. No one,in history. Sound strange? It should. You have bought into something that embodies the worst aspects of a religion without even the clear goal of one. When fear grips the nation and life sucks a little more --- yet --- no attacks occur, they just shrug and say, that's proof that it's working. Life is not sucking for them.
3. Once upon a time, smart people created something called a 'Sunset Provision', to keep bad legislation from turning everything to shit. No one cared, no one acted courageously and the shit is now locked in, maybe for good. Obama recently extended the Patriot Act provisions --- not from any clear evidence that it has a positive effect, but because he is the latest spineless machine in a series of spineless legislative machines.
Instead of Congress repealing bad legislation, they add pages to it. And here we go again 1-2-3, 1-2-3. It's a Waltz of Doom.
It's a simple little ratchet device, that is making life suck more every day.
FYI There's a little lever on the ratchet that unlocks it.
Too bad no one has the courage to operate the lever.
Or it's someone else's job.
If you think that these days are so much better than the 60s, the 80s, the 90s, you have a great excuse not to touch the lever.
>CLICK<
There, now life sucks a little more. But just a little.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
"...prompting city officials to investigate replacing the TSA with a private security contractor..."
Oh yeah, I'm sure this will go swimmingly. Can you imagine how much a private security contractor will charge for this nonsense? It'll be 5 times what the TSA costs now and be just as bad if not worse.
Oh, you missed your flight due to long security screening lines? Too bad, just call $big_company (like Halliburton, perhaps?) and complain. Then you'll be told that there's no refund or compensation, and yes, you agreed to it because it was in the EULA that was on your plane ticket.
My only question is, "How can I get in on this boondoggle?"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I shall do just that, during the ample time for contemplation afforded by the longer lines.
Just make sure you get to the airport early (12 hours before takeoff should be about right) and enjoy a leisurely day in the TSA line.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
When the wait time hits a certain threshold, open the gates and just let everyone walk through until the line clears.
Getting things done is more important than having a show of security that shuts down business. If you don't like it, go home and hide under your bed. Wait. The odds of being killed in a car crash on the way home are higher than the odds of a terrorist attack. Go hide under the seats by the ticket counter and wait for the government to come mother you.
A significant contributor to this problem is the relatively new TSA pre-check passenger category. Along with airport personnel and premium passengers, these people usually immediately pre-processed by TSA personnel as they arrive, which can starve the regular passenger lines of service. And they often have dedicated screening lines with space and TSA agents that are underutilized, while the regular adjacent lines are overloaded. Some airports like PDX (Portland) seem very attuned to issues like these, and are hustling people through as best as possible. And then there's AUS (Austin) where the TSA personnel are virtually clueless about slowdowns, much less the cause of them, and also appear uninterested in trying to improve anything.
Flights per year in US: 800x 10^6. Assume 2/3 of those go through TSA.
Average time spent in line at TSA: 20 minutes
Average human lifetime: 40 x 10^6 minutes
800 x 10^6 * 2/3 * 20 minutes / (40 x 10^6) = 267 human lifetimes
The TSA wastes at least 270 human lives every year. Even if we had no security at airports, terrorists would never kill that many people EVERY year.
That does not even factor in the billions of dollars that it costs to run the TSA.
I mean, it's nice that you want to find a job for the unemployable, but could you maybe stuff them somewhere where they don't get into the way of others?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You must be new here (earth). For most of my life, airport security was by private contractors hired by companies that want your business- airlines and airports. There wasn't a two hour wait and cost was far lower.
It's interesting to me that so many people guess what might happen if ______ (something that's happened a lot). We know exactly how private security works, we had it for decades. A lot like people who make predictions about the effect of ignoring the second amendment- we don't have to guess, gun bans have been done numerous times in numerous places and we know what the results have been.
I already get "free" precheck about half the time I fly. If they can automatically qualify me for pre-check without making me pay $85 and visit a TSA office to enroll, why don't they just continue to do that? Though I don't see why I sometimes get free pre-check on an outbound flight but not on a returning flight, have I suddenly become a security risk in the 2 days since my outbound flight, or are they just trying to give me a taste of pre-check so I pay to enroll?
You forgot the extra 500 deaths due to people driving rather than flying, which is more dangerous on average.
I don't read AC A human right
I'm sure that's why a lot of people do not sign up for pre-check, because the wait to get an interview seems way to long.
In reality though you can do it pretty much any day, you just may have to wait a bit longer - just show up and say you'd like an interview, there are often openings as the interviews are pretty short and they usually have time between each one.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Here's an idea for the people who seem to love to spend money on technology - have a system where I can take a look at the current (and expected) wait times before I leave for airport.
While I'd still hate long waits, right now I have no idea if I'm going to be done in 10 minutes, or an hour. Maybe you could tell us? I'm sure you will come up with a "security" reason why us plebs shouldn't know how long the lines are going to be, and instead have to guesstimate the wait time.
It might in fact work out better if you use an appointment type system - recently I was in line with a person who had come to the airport two hours before his flight, and someone whose flight was going to depart in the next 15 minutes. When you make wait times unpredictable, you are creating these type of situations.
There are three primary causes for delay by TSA:
1. People checking IDs spending too much time per passenger. Often being friendly or helping out, but also people that are just slow. (Why the process isn't primarily automated is beyond me.) Other issues arise when people don't know what they are doing.
2. Baggage scanners with inadequate aptitude to review data presented to them on screen, potentially being overly conservative. From what I can tell, this is sometimes caused by screeners that are highly procedural and not creative in their approach; I thought their displays were mirrored to other screens; it would seem appropriate to be able to "vote" to pass bags, or having an AI do more of the work.
3. Lack of a secondary screening X-Ray terminal. While there are bags that need multiple scans, this should not hold up the rest of the line. The systems several airports have where there is a "diverter" line with its own scanner is really needed at high-flow lines. Typically I see it done as one diverter per two primary scanners.
There are a number of other things that could be improved. The naked body scanners have improved, but weird things still slow them down-- long hair, baggy clothes, etc. To that end, more people in Pre Check would improve the situation, but it should still be less than 20 seconds per passenger going through a line. This inefficiency seems more like a space constraint, as just having a full time male and female at each scanner would improve throughput.
it's been a tactic of the right wing for years. There's no easier way to convince people that gov't can't work then to break it on purpose.
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properly fund the TSA. I don't like the idea of handing off something as important as this to the lowest bidder. And you're _always_ handing it off to the lowest bidder when you let the market decide. That's how markets work.
As for the worse it gets the easier it being to get rid of the TSA, well that's kind of the point. It's called "Starve the Beast" and it's a strategy for privatizing public utilities and services for profit. Works too.
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isn't necessarily a bad thing. Given the amount of Automation going on we're either gonna figure out what to do with all the people who aren't genius grade or let billions starve. That was the original purpose of the military industrial complex. Eisenhower talked about it in his memoirs. As for obedience you're reading too much into it and over estimating the average joe's ability to make change. We can't even get these folks to bother voting in a mid term. Who needs obedience when apathy will do?
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I used to spend almost half my time on the road. I used to have nightmares about air travel, but it was never about plane crashes, it was about horrible mess-ups on the ground -- delayed or canceled flight causing me to miss my connection. That kind of thing.
Then a funny thing happened: sooner or later all of my nightmares ended up coming true.
I've missed key meetings with clients because the airlines couldn't get me to my destination on the appointed day. I've spent the night trying to sleep sitting up at Chicago Midway. I once spent 23 hours and 53 minutes in the loving embrace of the air travel system, just to cross the continental United States. I've flown across the continent sandwiched between two sweaty three hundred pound men, and I'm no lightweight myself. I've flown to Chile on a ten hour flight that allowed smoking. I was supposed to be on the flight that flew into the South Tower of the WTC on 9/11, but my trips was cancelled at the last minute so I could attend a bullshit meeting at Oracle in Nashua NH, which of course didn't happen because we spent the whole day glued to the TV in the conference room.
After having had almost every kind of bad air travel thing that can happen short of a crash or a hijacking, and having dodged one very major bullet, I just take all the crap air travel throws at me in stride. Flying will always be unreliable and inconvenient. Oh, you can learn the tricks of the trade, like "Never book an itinerary that involves Newark in any way," but there's no way to get around the fact that flying will always be inconvenient and unreliable, because the airlines will always promise more than they can deliver. So you show up ridiculously early in case of security snafus, bring plenty of stuff to read, and roll with the punches. It's like Hamlet said: there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. A screwed up itinerary is just an opportunity to catch up on my reading.
The poster is right: if you have any option other than flying, choose that instead. I'll even take a four hour bus ride over a one hour flight, provided it's a non-stop bus. But if you have to fly, you just have to put up with it, because it'll never get much better than it is now. Sure, the TSA should fix their manpower problem, but even if they do flying will never be like what airlines promise it will be.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
In _The Probability Broach_, an alternate-universe Science Fiction novel where the "North American Confederacy" is a minarchist "government" evolved from the pre-Constitution, Articles of Confederacy - based, United States, where pretty much everybody goes around armed all the time, a (private-enterprise zeplin) airline has a weapons checkpoint in the boarding path.
What they check is that, if you're carrying a projectile weapon, it is loaded with frangible rounds that won't penetrate the walls and internal partitions of the aircraft.
Anyone foolish enough to try to rob, beat, etc. others, and thus provoke them into a self-defence draw-down, is on their own. B-) Meanwhile, trying to get into the control cabin with frangible ammunition is futile - and will attract the attention of the other, armed, passengers.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
The problem here is simply that the TSA and the Unions are attempting to blackmail the public for more funding. Just like when President Obama had the National parks shut down, and his was successful.
Want to fix the disease? Start canning Government officers by any and all possible means and ban the ability for Government positions to be unionized. Everyone and their brother warned about the dangers of letting public servants unionize.
It was not too long ago that Public Service was just a job, often requiring sacrifice to fulfill. Today, it's like hitting the frigging Lottery.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Problem-Reaction-Solution. They cause the problem by cutting budget, our reaction is what we get now. They will soon come with solutions such as biometrics, private contractors which are not bound by law etc... Time to contact your senators - in drove and saturate them with firm requests to do the right thing. And remember: the heads of the TSA are all ex-military. So in essence civilians are answering to militaries.
Last year I was included in Pre-Check for the first time ever, as far as I know. My boarding pass had a note on it.
No one ever mentioned Pre-Check, I had never heard of it, and it not only meant nothing, I didn't even recognize it. The agent at the head of the queues didn't mention anything. I went through regular screening.
Poorly implemented, poorly delivered, stupid. I finally, on the return trip, was told by the agent to turn right and bypass screening. I had no idea why until I saw the signage AFTER going through the Pre-Check gate.
Stupid. Typical TSA/government. We need to make them stop this. ALL of this.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I too fly monthly. I have a hernia that is apparently indistinguishable from C4. The worthless fuckers pat me down every single time and have me lift my shirt. America is no safer afterwards.
Nullius in verba
"In the past three years, the TSA and Congress cut the number of front-line screeners by 4,622 -- or about 10% -- on expectations that an expedited screening program called PreCheck would speed up the lines. However, not enough people enrolled for TSA to realize the anticipated efficiencies."
So, really, this was just congress cooking the books with the budget by cutting something that would have to be restored. PreCheck (or, rather, the Trusted Traveler programs that give you access to PreCheck) require an in-person interview. Last time I checked, the next available appointment at SFO (the only location for this in the Bay Area) was November! Plenty of people have signed up, but there isn't enough capacity to process the applications.
Congress should have realized that enrolling millions of people in a new program would require significant funding.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
For god's sake. let people, pee, molest, etc, just let us through the security line.
There are so many things that aren't well automated. In other countries I've seen how they employ low skilled workers building sidewalk extensions and doing the manual labor needed to help a pipelaying machine or a paving machine. We have so much end of life infrastructure in the ground and so many poorly engineered streets that we could find work for all the teens and other difficult to employ for decades just in this one sector already run by the government.
My wife is a corporate execute for a company with operational offices all over the country. Video conferencing doesn't cut it. She needs to be on premise, or you just don't get the understanding of what's going on. most often the culprit is bad site management, who can be quite adapt at hiding issues if you're not on site. It's in the health care field and these issues can be life or death. non-flight isn't an option. .
... and they are going to sabotage air travel until they get it.
So when exactly are you going to apply for a job as a TSA screening officer, they are looking for 768, after all it is like winning the lottery or are you just bullshitting.
What a foolish question. Why would I take a starter job anywhere for any reason? Not everyone on Slashdot is young enough to do so. Now if these jobs existed 3x years ago do you think I'd have served in the Army? Do you think I'd have struggled to put myself through 8 years of College as a restaurant manager instead of taking a TSA job? You are not performing mental gymnastics, you are just being a stupid prick.
So people should be banned from joining unions or perhaps having a government jobs means becoming a second class citizen with less rights or well, seriously.
Awe, is someone so enraged that they can't hold a single concept for more than a second? Government jobs should not be allowed to unionize, it's very specific very intentionally. That same opinion and all of the warnings about the dangers can be found as far back as President Hoover. Milton Friedman warned of the same a bit more eloquently. You being too stupid to read has nothing to do with your broken logic and appeal to emotion. Government service, like "Government" can not be treated the same as personal business.
Perhaps you can just kick a random fireman, soldier or policemen in the nuts for you jollies, as they do not deserve the protection of unions and they should be regularly 'sacrificed?', seriously.
Talk about absurdity, yes... I think that anyone I don't like should be thrown into the volcano to be sacrificed. You first.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
There's also the extra cancer deaths due to the radiation from the scanners. Yes, the chances are small, but with hundreds of millions of scans every year you're going to a get a few.
TSA just doesnt have the budget to hire more workers nor allowed to pay overtime. A US Congress that wants smaller government and dislikes Big Brother TSA in particular has strangled the budget. There are certainly enough security fees on airplane tickets to pay for TSA. TSA has no shortage of interested applicants. Its one of thecrare service jobs that pays substantially above minimum wage without college or trade training. TSA is not the only agency micromanaged by an antipathic Congress. The IRS and National Park Service are agencies with more revenues than they are allowed to spend and suffering too.
Two things: 1) 4,622 jobs were cut? 2) How did a 10% headcount reduction result in a doubling or tripling of wait times? It is interesting that the TSA and Congress agreed to the staff cuts (likely to pay for the failed 'pre-check program', which was likely designed by a former college room mate of Michelle Obama - total coincidence, BTW - yet these wizards of central planning are blaming a 10% workforce reduction for a trebling of of wait times... Must be those rascally republicans!
At some point someone in the USA is going to take advantage of the concentration of people at the checkpoints for maximum mayhem. The most likely someone is another Timothy McVeigh.
What happens then?
If most people are like me they do not want to sign up for the pre-TSA screen program because they do not like being treated like criminals by the government. Among other things you must be fingerprinted by TSA and undergo a background check to qualify for the program. Anyone who has previously been arrested, or has served in the military, or has gone through a security clearance check already has been fingerprinted at the country, state, and/or federal level or else has their fingerprints available at all levels of government. The last time I underwent a background check was when I was subpoenaed for service on a grand jury. That was okay, they just confirm that you are not a convicted felon and have no outstanding warrants. Essentially, your name comes back negative in their databases. In this type of program you are assumed guilty until proven innocent. That rubs people the wrong way.
Worst form of meditation ever.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
I shall do just that, during the ample time for contemplation afforded by the longer lines.
Just make sure you get to the airport early (12 hours before takeoff should be about right) and enjoy a leisurely day in the TSA line.
President Trump will see this as an opportunity to reduce the deficit by selling snacks and drinks to those in line. Trump brand, of course.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Why aren't people signing up for Pre-Check? Because it's insulting to be asked to pay for something that saves the TSA money. They should be paying US to do it out of the cost savings that they were expecting from the program.
You are complaining about wages that meet what a Police officer makes, without any of the requirements. Wages that are more than double what a person who enlists in the Military. And you try to excuse that with the "dead end" job excuse which can be applied to EVERY POSSIBLE ENTRY LEVEL JOB!
While we are at it, why is it okay for Government workers to Unionize, but Military people can't? Oh my, there is a convincing argument which translates to ALL GOVERNMENT JOBS.
I doubt that any of that will sink into your brain bucket. You will probably retort with the same argument again, and I'll simply ignore it. You have not convinced me of anything but your own ignorance and bias and I doubt you ever could.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Perhaps they should investigate replacing the TSA with a potted plant, instead.