TSA Begins Training Agents at New Center, Vows to Do Better Work in 2016
Joe Cortez February 16, 2016
New Transportation Security Administration Academy offers screeners hands-on experience before deployment to airports.
In an effort to recover from highly publicized gaffes in 2015, the Transportation Security Administration is changing how new airport screeners are trained. The agency has opened a new training academy on the grounds of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Glynco, Georgia for new TSA recruits.
The agency showed off their new facility to CBS News, which features a fully working mock-up of an airport security checkpoint. The two-week training course at the center will replace the standard four-week airport training previously offered to new screeners. During training, recruits will be given hands-on instruction regarding the equipment they will use every day to screen the estimated 1.9 million people flying in the United States every day.
The new training protocol comes after the TSA experienced a year of public embarrassment. In April 2015, two TSA agents at Denver International Airport (DEN) were fired over a scheme to grope select flyers, leading to a report by Judicial Watch claiming sexual assault was a major problem at airports across the country. In June 2015, the Department of Homeland Security issued a scathing report claiming the TSA did not discover 95 percent of planted weapons in an Inspector General investigation. By November, a second report called the agency’s problems “troubling” and “consistent across every airport.”
For new TSA administrator Peter Neffenger, the academy offers a chance for the agency to return to their mission of keeping the skies safe. Although he admitted to CBS News they may not catch everything, he believes the new training regime will improve agent performance at their home airports.
“What I’ve tried to do is refocus on the mission,” Neffenger told CBS News. “I said, what is a screener’s job is [sic] to ensure that something that shouldn’t get past the checkpoint doesn’t get past.”
The agency expects to train 5,400 new TSA screeners at the new academy in 2016. The TSA has set a goal to have the entire force of over 45,000 agents eventually pass through the agency.
[Photo: Reuters/Brad Graverson/Pool]
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Flyinryan beat me to it!
TSA people are NOT agents but normal employees like most of us.
SALUTES? I mean, you have to be kidding, right? Is the TSA an armed service? It would be utterly laughable if it weren't first offensive to veterans and service members!
Where does the TSA get such rude people? None of them should be anywhere near the public.
here only way this academy will help, is if you fire everyone else, including management..Filtering in officers with good habits and fresh outlook quickly become tarnished by the lazy and non caring officers that they are surrounded by.. I traveled through terminal 5 in JFK this past summer..the officer on xray called bag check on every bag, there was a terrible back up on his lane..all of a sudden the bag started moving, he finally allowed the bags to go on through..you can see he was disgusted... no one was checking bags, just going through the xray...in fact they were coming through so fast now they were all crashing into one another and some falling off the belt......i was about to say something to the supervisors ( there were 3) but they were all engaged in conversation with what happened over the weekend... they didn't know I was standing there, they weren't looking onto their checkpoint..no manager on the floor.... as far as poor training....when I started we were trained by lockheed and martin...they were serious and tested us well....after that our annual testing, I wouldn't say it was harsh... it was our job, we should know what we are doing... but it should be done by an outside agency.. not by our friends at headquarters... and not by those who don't know the jobs themselves..in case you haven't figured it out..Yes I'm a former TSA officer..I started as a part time officer, and became Supervisor in a short time...I was a such a good officer, that I also carried the possibilities of being an acting Manager for 7 months..ok, so I was good enough to do at my Supervisor Salary but not good enough enough to take on the responsibility full time... But that's fine, that's how you know you have outgrown a dysfunctional job..I would call in My bomb appraisal officers to drill my officers in both baggage and checkpoint... some really powerful stuff...very informative..some of their procedures for us to find these item, contradicted what our training dept tells us...when I mentioned to training, the findings... as a way to engage in a way to maybe change how we check something... i was shut down. and scolded... "this is what we do , we don't look for other way to do it"....( I thought this was our mission, and vision)...but what do I know.... Yeah.... My advice.... take care of your new officers..... train them well... test them 2x a year...that's their job...don't call it testing.. don't threaten their jobs, especially if they haven't been trained properly....who ever signs off on their training.. hold them accountable...SOP testing.. that's the only test that should be held to the highest...because that's our standards of operation.... if someone doesn't know that... bye bye...but failing because of verbiage....ridiculous! .......Ok I miss my job, and the people I worked with but I'm happy that i left when I did...I do hope to see success in this agency.... because right now...its a disaster...