Originally Posted by
dasanmarco
Just a thought.. if someone wanted to be a smuggler (or is a smuggler), but currently has a clean record, they could apply for a trusted traveler program and will likely be accepted, and they could then use those credentials to smuggle stuff at a much lower chance of being caught.
Welcome to FT. I'll go easy since you're new here.
What you are really saying is that a background check, which, by definition looks at what someone has DONE in the PAST (and actually, only what someone has been CAUGHT doing), is useless for guaranteeing what that person might have THOUGHT about doing or what they might do in the FUTURE.
If you've figured that out, you're smarter than anyone at TSA. Congratulations. Not that "smarter than TSA" is much of an achievement.
Nevertheless, TSA (as noted by txrus and BSBD above) gives unlimited trusted access to its own clerks and to airport staff for secure parts of the airport on the basis of a single background check. It's fine to let a TSA clerk rummage through your checked bag or watch your laptop and wallet while you're in the body scanner; they would never steal* because "they've had a background check". Funny, huh?
*Except when they do. Then "the actions of one TSA clerk in no way reflect on the professionalism of the organization as a whole"™.