Does anyone know what the actual procurement specification calls for, and how much we as taxpayers pay for a $5.41 plastic tub?

Probably 100 times the amount you cite.

Moderator's Note:
 

This is the Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate, "the place to discuss security policies – what they are and what they should be."

If you wish to discuss the politics, i.e., Taxation, or government procurement and spending, please do so in OMNI/PR.

Thank you,

TWA884
Co-moderator, Travel Safety/Security

TSA doesn't own them, the airport does

Does the airport own the body scanners and xrays as well then?

I hate this.

Sure, the TSA has all sorts of problems. I'm not their biggest fan at the moment either as my TSA Pre Check has inexplicably stopped working and I'm currently working to find out why and correct it, but they are fundamentally there to help keep air travel as safe as it can be. To retaliate against anybody for that is disgusting, and to do it by stealing a bin? It's immature and stupid.

I don't think they're actually brand name. I have some generic ones I use for gardening that I bought at a restaurant supply store for $2.99 each.

I definitely wouldn't steal one from the airport. Heaven only knows what they're contaminated with.

+1

I think what he did was great & harmless...but clearly shows just how inept and incompetent the TSA is.

The TSA is so focused on taking explosive H2O and <redacted by moderator> food from pax luggage that they completely miss the obvious. I seriously think you could walk around with a cartoon bomb and they'd never notice.

If they want to make air travel safe, they should step aside and dismantle the entire agency. They're an impediment to security.

My takeaway from all this?

TSA tells me I have a responsibility to keep an eye on my belongings at all times. When TSOs prevent me from doing so at the checkpoint, they tell me that there are cameras and other TSOs to ensure the security of my bags.

This guy could just as easily have walked off with my locked bag and no camera or TSO would have stopped him. I will be even more insistent in the future in trying to keep personal control of my belongings at all times.

I disagree. What he did was not great, and was not harmless. It was petty theft of government property.

The harm is minuscule; it will cost the government five or ten of my tax dollars to replace the missing bin. But it is harm.

And petty theft, no matter how petty or minuscule, is still theft.

I do agree with you that TSA's ridiculous focus on non-threats completely diverts their attention from true threats. A 95% failure rate on tests, not to mention the incident a year or so ago where a soldier was able to carry five pounds of undisguised, unhidden C4 plastic explosive, still in its original government wrapper labeled "CAUTION C4 HIGH EXPLOSIVE" (and a live smoke grenade) through a c/p and travel halfway across the country with it, show that TSA is worse than useless at accomplishing the one thing they're supposed to be doing - finding guns and bombs on travelers and their belongings.

Ditto.

I sometimes feel like a jerk for crowding the belt exit, waiting for my stuff to come out, and grabbing it as soon as it appears, but every time I find myself standing there in my socks, one hand on my waist to keep my beltless pants from falling down around my ankles, I get this paranoid feeling of dread that if I don't grab my stuff and get away from the crowd, some stranger (perhaps even one wearing a blue shirt) will abscond with my bag or some of its contents.

I take precautions, of course, locking everything from my pockets in the main compartment of the bag. But even so, when I've got a bag full of a couple of grand worth of camera and computer gear sitting there, not to mention my phone, my wallet, my daily medications, and any cash I may be carrying, precautions be damned - I'm watching my stuff like a hawk and laying my hands on it ASAFP.