N830MH

Whether who will be fired? Who will be replace them?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...117-story.html

TSA fate to be decided in February. We will see what happens.

Himeno

Would be nice if this happened.
But would be even better if they replaced the TSA US wide and the replacement screening company didn't still have to follow the pointless, unneeded TSA rules.

Spoddy

I have no problems if they follow the rules, just not make them up as they go along, and be consistent about it!

WillCAD

Well, even if they do kick TSA to the curb at MCO, I doubt it will improve anything. Look at SFO - they're private, and they've got one of the worst reputations in the country.

Whether it's a government employee or a contractor, they'll still have to screen according to TSA rules. It's the TSA rules which need replacing, not so much the people carrying them out.

A full-body rubdown with genital contact feels the same when given by either a TSO or a private screener.

CGRA

Very confused : there is no Federal requirement to have TSA at all US airports ?

ronin308

cedricgerald, the TSA allows airports to opt out of using TSA personnel to conduct the screening and instead use a private company.

As WillCAD points out the screening is still going to follow the TSA's rules and requires TSA supervision.

The reality is that since 1973 some Federal Agency has been involved with passenger screening and the rules surrounding it.

WillCAD, i haven't flown through in the last 2 years but prior to that my experiences at SFO were all positive and I thought their reputation while not stellar was pretty good.

Personally I support having the screening done by private subcontracted companies for a variety of reasons, not the least of which they can be better held accountable if their contract is written right.

UncleDude

What happens to Pre-Check, sorry I dont want to wait behind Stuffed Shamus and various sizes of Toy Mice.

joshwex90

Is security any different in practicality in SFO than other airports?

N830MH

No, actually, not for all US airports. Some of them. Some airports who does not have a federal screening contractor. They have different private contractor. They have FirstLine and etc. They are independent, but not a federal security.

Critic

Absolutely nothing. Again, see the SFO example above.

ronin308

No, you still have pre-check, they use the same equipment and have to follow the same procedures and train their employees to TSA standard (yeah a bit of a joke).

However since it's a private contractor they have additional motivations which increase efficiency. For example at SFO they use the CCTV and FIDs systems to determine which checkpoints are going to see increased traffic and will proactively shift resources to those checkpoints from the lightly loaded ones. Of course they also creatively used the same CCTV resources to "cheat" on some of the TSA tests.

ronin308

All US passenger airports some level of TSA presence. At airports that have a private screening contractor, they are still overseen by several TSA staff members.
Oh and to answer your earlier question, most of the screeners would end up getting hired by whatever private contractor is awarded the job.

CGRA

So only new "management" and the same screeners
Is that a good step up ?

In some Hawaii airports, is it possible that it's not TSA screneers ?, maybe I'm dreaming

jkhuggins

That's the key debate. It may be that private contractors would be more willing to hold their staff accountable to standards of conduct. On the other hand, it might be that the zillions of TSA procedures that private contractors would have to follow might not lead to any difference visible to the general public. The relatively few examples we have of private TSA screening don't give us enough information to draw many conclusions.

Indelaware

Many Americans suffer from lingering red-scare to an extreme. For some, anything the government does - rather than private industry - is the first step to Stalinism. Others believe that anything the government does can be done at a lower cost and greater efficiency by the private sector, the cost of profit notwithstanding.

These political ideas, combined with lobbying pressure from firms previously engaged employed by the airlines to conduct screening led some in Congress, when the TSA was formed, to require a "Screening Partnership Program," underwhich airports could opt to have front-end screening conducted by private firms under contract to the TSA.