I know for a fact that Federal Law Enforcement Officers of the US Department of Justice take a sworn oath, and carry official photo credentials stating that they are authorized to perform duties as directed by the Attorney General. But on top of that, not all of these law enforcement "sworn" USDOJ employees are called officers. The titles range from Officer, to Agent, Inspector, to Ranger, Marshal, Deputy and the long list of federal law enforcement (enter title here) goes on. It is a fact that payroll CLERKS in the US Federal Bureau of Prisons are law enforcement sworn staff who have attended the Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA, and collect federal law enforcement pay and pensions. During their normal day they work on payroll. But during a time of crisis such as if an inmate escapes into the community, they strap on a gun and badge and hit the streets side by side with the federal correctional officers who's payroll they manage.

I'm sure other law enforcement bodies within federal, local and state jurisdictions recieve some sort of commissioning to carry out duties of enforcing laws within their jurisdictions, and carry some sort of "commissioning" identification card. It might not be called a "commission," but it's called something. For example, Sheriff's Deputies are "deputized."

Being the fact that they are Federal employees, TSA employees might take an oath to defend the Constitution (you'd have to ask one the TSA-types on here). But whether they do or not, that fact alone does not give them authority to act under statutes that authorizes making arrests in the performance of duties as a real law enforcement OFFICERS have the vested authority to do.

"Commission," warrant," "deputized," "sworn oath," "appointment".......these are all synonomous when it comes to a discussion like this. "Commission" and "warrant" more so refers to military personnel, who are neither police officers nor security officers. In fact, the enlisted ranks E-4 and above are "noncommissioned OFFICERS," so even though they never recieved a commisssion they are still refered to NCO's with the "O" meaning "officer."

With all of that being said, it's just like someone said earlier---it's just a courtesy title, and it does not matter. I think what bothers people with it though is the fact that TSA dresses up their TSO's to project an image that they are law enforcement officers, and some of them really think they are, and so they act inappropriately. I have yet to see a forum thread where members are complaining about mall security officers because we know what they are, and because they work for private companies (instead of the federal government), it's hard to convince us otherwise.