Originally Posted by
Boggie Dog
TSA can't fix the screening problems as long as the employee problem isn't addressed and they screen for non-threats.
Removal of shoes, belts, and light outerwear is a procedure looking for a problem that doesn't exist. WBI is another bottleneck that should only be used for secondary screening and as GAO has recommended the BDO program should be ended and those screeners either returned to screening duties are discharged as excess.
Neffenger might make a difference but I won't be holding my breath for anything that improves the passengers experience when encountering TSA.
Neffenger has one focus - to improve results on the Red Team tests.
One of the problems with TSA's self-styled 'consistent inconsistency' approach is that it affects TSOs and their performance as well as passengers.
It's one thing if the pax doesn't know the rules from day to day; s/he gets barked at and gets belongings confiscated. When a TSO knows the rules are whatever s/he decides, is it really surprising when the outcomes are unpredictable?
Neffenger might have had greater success if he had simply insisted on consistent attention to the agency's mission instead of diverting attention to drugs and large sums of cash and breast prostheses and expense perfume bottles and cool light sabers. Instead, he's choosing to follow in his predecessor's footsteps, believing that an unpleasant checkpoint experience is an effective checkpoint experience.
The fact that he hasn't shut down employee cellphone use at the checkpoint says volumes. Does this guy ever fly? Does he actually observe what's going on?