Originally Posted by
gsoltso
The over-arching concern for TSA HQ, is to prevent planes from going down - and by any measurable statistic, they have done just that for 15+ years.
The pedant in me must point out that correlation is not the same as causation. Given how extremely rare malicious incidents aboard commercial aircraft are, I'm not sure there is public evidence to justify a conclusion that TSA has directly prevented planes from going down. Simply counting the lack of incidents over the last 15+ years isn't evidence.
Originally Posted by
gsoltso
I would love to see a citizens group that works with TSA (similar to the groups we work with for people with disabilities) to provide insight and brain storm suggestions for the organization.
TSA has groups that solicit input on how to screen people with disabilities, and yet we continue to read verified reports regarding how people with disabilities are mistreated at TSA checkpoints. How would your proposed citizens group be any better?
Originally Posted by
gsoltso
I would also love to see TSA HQ possibly through social media, engage the public at large, to gain even more insight from other focus groups - parents with young children, families with elderly members that need more assistance getting through, essentially any group that is not 18-50 male/female and traveling on business. Once we engage those folks, we can being to take their suggestions and input into account for future policy planning. To some extent, TSA does this, but not in the same way I think you or I would like to see.
Engaging the public requires actually listening and responding to the public's concerns. TSA's social media response these days seems to be limited to regurgitating approved boilerplate messages.