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Almost Half Of All TSA Employees Have Been Cited For Misconduct (mercurynews.com)
Slashdot reader schwit1 writes: Almost half of all TSA employees have been cited for misconduct, and the citations have increased by almost 30 percent since 2013... It also appears that the TSA has been reducing the sanctions it has been giving out for this bad behavior.
Throughout the U.S., the airport security group "has instead sought to treat the misconduct with 'more counseling and letters that explain why certain behaviors were not acceptable'," according to a report from the House Homeland Security Commission, titled "Misconduct at TSA Threatens the Security of the Flying Public". It found 1,206 instances of "neglect of duty", and also cited the case of an Oakland TSA officer who for two years helped smugglers slip more than 220 pounds of marijuana through airport security checkpoints, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
The newspaper adds that "The misconduct ranges from salacious (federal air marshals spending government money on hotel rooms for romps with prostitutes) to downright dangerous (an officer in Orlando taking bribes to smuggle Brazilian nationals through a checkpoint without questioning)." Their conclusion? "The TSA's job is to make airline passengers feel safer and, not incidentally, actually make us safer. It's failing on both."
Throughout the U.S., the airport security group "has instead sought to treat the misconduct with 'more counseling and letters that explain why certain behaviors were not acceptable'," according to a report from the House Homeland Security Commission, titled "Misconduct at TSA Threatens the Security of the Flying Public". It found 1,206 instances of "neglect of duty", and also cited the case of an Oakland TSA officer who for two years helped smugglers slip more than 220 pounds of marijuana through airport security checkpoints, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
The newspaper adds that "The misconduct ranges from salacious (federal air marshals spending government money on hotel rooms for romps with prostitutes) to downright dangerous (an officer in Orlando taking bribes to smuggle Brazilian nationals through a checkpoint without questioning)." Their conclusion? "The TSA's job is to make airline passengers feel safer and, not incidentally, actually make us safer. It's failing on both."
TSA was created by Bush as a knee jerk reaction to 9-11. I'm surprised Obama hasn't gotten rid of it.
However, government never seems to get smaller nor can it realize a mistake. It only perpetuates (in this case) an unnecessary bureaucracy.
Let's go back to metal detectors and private security. My tube of toothpaste isn't the problem.
TSA is.
FTA; Neglect of duty is described as "inattention to duty resulting in a loss of property or life; careless inspection; negligent performance of duties; failure to exercise due diligence in performance of duties; failure to follow procedures."
When you have a lot of strict procedures, and you have tight monitoring, you get a lot of violations.
I traded in a 3 year old car last year with 124,000 miles on the odometer. I very, very rarely fly any more due to the TSA nonsense. I load my junk in the trunk, climb into the driver's seat, and drive 2,500 miles to and 2,500 miles back from an event in Arizona, and then I have events to go to in St. Louis, Indianapolis, La Crosse, Madison, Pittsburgh, and Southern New Jersey. If I do an event in California, I MIGHT fly. I also MIGHT ship my bags by other means, too. Enough of the nonsense of violating the 4th Amendment by having GOVERNMENT agents blanket searching people just because they want to travel on an airplane. The GOVERNMENT can't legally do that, but they ignore the Constitution and do it anyway. Lots of the Constitution is being ignored, more every day, and I for one am not going to cooperate. They can stick it.
It's like the Stanford Prison Experiment, only with a lot more experimental groups.
This and the whole situation you have with shootings of blacks should be no surprise. You give one group of people power over another group with insufficient checks and balances, they misbehave and turn into giant douches.
I'd argue that that one line is incorrect. TSA's job isn't to make airline passengers feel safer. It's to make them feel like they should feel unsafe except for the fact that the TSA is there.
That is: Their job is to make you think that you need them to do their job, and that without them you would be killed.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
Public support for nationalizing airport security in 2001 was based on the claim that private airport 'rent-a-cops' were inherently underpaid, under-trained, and effectively responsible to no one. Nationalizing airport security was based on the notion that making those people Federal Officers at higher salaries would attract higher quality workers, subject them to rigorous and closely supervised training programs, and make their leadership directly answerable to national security leadership.
Turns out that the government hasn't made them "officers," in the sense of secret service or FBI, doesn't actually pay them any better, and is really struggling to train them faster than they quit. They do seem to have better documentation of their failures, so I guess that's a win of sorts. The "small government" party, who controlled the presidency, senate, and house at the time, forgot that they don't believe in nationalizing private industries, and now they have a fine demonstration of why.
"The TSA's job is to make airline passengers feel safer ...."
Yea, right. I'm going to feel safer with these obvious deviants and criminals groping me, taking dirty pictures of my family, and stealing what they can from my luggage? I simply refuse to fly any more.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.