Originally Posted by
bocastephen
The owners of the property I'm speaking of are the airlines - I fly on their property, therefore they are the last and only authority to decide if I fly (unless I'm on the no fly list) based on regulations and their assessment of my fitness to fly (sober, non-combative, not-dangerous, suspicious, etc.). However, the Airport Director is also involved, as I use their property too - which is a good point, since there have been cases of the TSA (and cops) attempting to banish customers from the terminal when they lack the authority to do so - only the AD's office can do that. Since you're from Tampa, the recent nazi case is a good example of a the TSA removing a customer from the terminal building without authority to do so, unless the AD's office requested it.
I'm not from Tampa, I'm from MSP (Minneapolis, MN). At MSP, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) owns the airport. The MAC employs their very own Airport Police Department (APD). The APD has the authority to remove someone from the airport if they feel that they are loitering or have no official business being on their property. The airlines don't have the ultimate say.
Originally Posted by
bocastephen
That number has been tossed around everywhere - by media, TSA and insiders alike. Perhaps you'd like to share the amount of SPOT-specific training the TSA has provided you?
I have taken approximately 40-50 hours of initial classroom training, 24 hours of OJT with an experienced trainer (prior to being certified), and spent the first several weeks with an experienced BDO. Since then I have received ongoing classroom training from TSA and other federal and local agency on document recognition and behavior pattern recognition. Along with that, continuous online training and learning from my peers success or mistakes.
I have been doing the job for about a year and feel that I have a well-developed skill. I spend 40 hours a week observing thousands of people, I now have a database of normal behavior and abnormal behavior. I have recognized patterns and can tell you a great deal about someone prior to engaging them in conversation. I learn something new everyday and continue to develop my skills.