Originally Posted by
azoomee
I've been fortunate (or unfortunate) to travel quite a bit. Today as I went through security at SBY (Salisbury, MD) which is a small regional airport, I watched as the guy who was looking for contraband etc in the xray machine in security was texting someone real time. Though he tried to make it look like he was working, it was clear he was spending the majority of time on his phone with a few brief glances up on the screen. Retrospectively I should have asked for a supervisor, but was in a hurry. A little scary when these folks are supposed to be keeping us safe....
Is this is a one off or have any of you seen this also?
He's likely not compromising safety at all. From what I understand, the decision as to whether a pax needs to be detained for further search after going through the scanner is made by a TSA worker who is away from the scanner, in another room. So the guy you saw simply sees something like "Go" and "Stop" on his screen. That's a very easy command to follow -- leaving plenty of time for texting.