petaluma1

Then there must be many screeners who go "well outside" the new procedure as I've read many reports of similar assaults on passengers.

Section 107

LOL! Thank you for posting this because it reminds me that this did indeed happen. USSS and others wanted google to use overlays over the Capitol, the WH and the Naval Observatory when google maps went live. True story....

KRSW

TSA has been 100% effective at preventing giraffes and elephants from boarding aircraft. I've heard lots of stories of emotional support animals (pigs, even!), but so far no one's gotten the aforementioned animals on-board.

I've done this, not quite THAT loud though. As the screener was putting his gloves on, I started flirting with him and saying, "I've been looking forward to this...all...night...long" as I wiggled my male bits in his direction. Fastest pat-down ever and he stayed miles away from man-land.

chollie

Red Team tests must be coming up. I wonder if they'll coincide with the spring work slowdown, er, TSA Pre recruitment effort. (I expect a similar fall effort, when TDCs start harassing folks with non-Real ID compliant ID, ahead of the actual deadline for accepting such IDs).

Somebody must have put out the word that if TSA doesn't score better than 5%, pax are really going to suffer.

petaluma1

From what the DHS IG told a congressional committee, the tests have already begun and the public will be informed of the results.

Boggie Dog

I'll believe it after it actually happens.

chollie

You know, I wonder what the testing post-mortem is like.

In my workplace, if something goes badly wrong (ie, we 'fail'), there's a post-mortem and everyone ends up hearing what went wrong and what, specifically, has been done or will be done to prevent it from happening again.

Did TSA go back and inform the workforce about the reasons for their failures? For example, if half the failures were because TSOs didn't check out the bottom of pax feet, I would think that information would be passed on to the work force and pax would see a rise in TSO attention to the soles of their feet.

Were a significant number of Red Team failures attributable to contraband 'artfully concealed' in groins? And does that test reflect likely terrorist threats, based on our current intel?

After all, our latest threat seems to be from pax having access to their electronics in the plane cabin, not from what they are carrying in their crotches or bras.

FliesWay2Much

When the 97% failure rate was revealed, I remember posting that I predicted that We, the People, would pay dearly for the TSA's transgressions. I hate being right. I suspect that the new sexual assaults were instituted as a morale-booster for the workforce to direct the problem at us rather than the TSA's incompetence. And, really, other than an actual strip search and/or body cavity search, there really isn't much else that the TSA can do to make their employees feel better about themselves. They've just about reached the limits of harassment.

petaluma1

Apparently, it's now required by law that the IG release the results of testing to the general public.

Section 107

the tests are over, the follow up phase and the reporting phase are under way.

Boggie Dog

After being sanitized to what degree? The devil is in the details.

I would want to know how any failures occurred. What kind of test item was used and missed. What screening technology was used that failed. I think TSA should be required to show that their excessive pat downs mitigate the screening failures.

TheBOSman

Except they likely don't. The biggest insult of TSA is that very little that they do actually enhances security. Arguably, much of it hurts actual security, and it can be argued that TSA has led to the deaths of thousands of Americans who have driven to a destination instead of flying due purely to the TSA security theater. And, most of what really does enhance security is pretty obvious (x-ray screening of baggage, WTMD, intelligence gathering, old fashioned police/detective work, etc.), and done in many countries already, without the histrionics and ridiculous invasiveness of TSA.

KRSW

THIS! I don't have the highest security clearances by any stretch of the imagination, but I've never had to leave my bottle of water, take off my shoes, get groped to enter a federal building or military installation. I've never had the security guards / US Marshalls / AF MPs ever yell, bark, or otherwise be anything less than polite. I truly do believe the current (and past) TSA fiasco makes us LESS safe. The TSA's original mission was to reassure the flying public. I'd feel much more reassured with them gone from the airports.

9/11 won't happen again due to the armored cockpit doors *AND* passengers who aren't willing to take crap. In fact, passengers react to changing circumstances faster than TSA ever could, take a look at UA93. Before the WTC towers even collapsed, passengers became aware of what was going on *AND* changed their procedures to deal with this new threat. TSA simply can't react that quickly, no matter how hard they'd try. Their structure doesn't support it. There's no way for Washington DC to talk directly to the pax <deleted> immediately.

Just leave a WTMD and x-ray machine behind and let the pax self-police the thing, with a Page a LEO button nearby. You better believe pax aren't going to let anything slip by. Crowdsourcing has been used for quite a few other things today. No reason it couldn't work here. For that matter, you could outsource the x-ray machines to people on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, where you could have 10 different people look at a bag x-ray in under 10 seconds for $1 or less and let them Page the LEO.

sheegoes

incontinence or sanitary protection. What will happen to elders wearing disposable diapers or females requiring bulky sanitary protection. Will they be subjected to MORE intimate exams to be sure of what is being concealed. This is not a joke. Many travelers with obvious and non obvious disabilities resulting in bathroom "issues" wear readily available products to prevent embarassing accidents. Does TSA have a new procedure for these travellers?

petaluma1

This is a question I have asked several times. Do they make these people remove these products to be tested? If not, then prodding is useless unless, as FliesWay2Much suggested, these patdowns are really for the purpose of trying to find explosive residue and not "dangerous items". As an added benefit, however, such products keep prodding fingers at bay - therefore, I would suggest that people wear them.