petaluma1

It is also extraordinarily difficult to maintain a state of high-alert when neither person with intent to destroy an aircraft nor object designed to do the same has ever been found in the entire history of the TSA.

WillCAD

"Hey <click>, this could be a bomb <click>! How do I know <click> this isn't going to blow up <click>?"

"Well, you've been clicking the switch the whole time you've been holding it. If it were capable of blowing up, you would certainly have blown it by now."

It is also extraordinary difficult to maintain a state of high alert with inadequate, inconsistent, and downright incompetent training.

And the fact that TSOs often engage in blatantly non-job activities on the job doesn't help.

IMHO, TSOs whould be prohibited from carrying PEDs on duty, except for issued devices directly related to the performance of their job, such as walkies and government phones. I've known many people whose jobs had such prohibitions, and none of them were in security positions like a TSO. I'm sure the union would jump all over that with the "Well, what if TSO Johnny's wife goes into labor or TSO Mary's sister is hit by a car or TSO Frankie's mother has a heart attack? How would their families contact them without their PEDs?"

The answer, of course, is to call the TSA office at their airport and have them paged via the PA or the government-issued equipment. You know, like people used to do prior to about 2000 or so when everyone over the age of 4 started getting cell phones.

If it's an emergency, they can be paged. If it's not an emergency, it can wait till end of shift.

But I suspect there are a lot of games of 2048 and Minesweeper going on that TSOs wouldn't want interrupted.