chollie

Might be PHX.

sunshinekid

Pretty sure that is a TSA Uniform, the patch with the eagle has Security Adminstration on it. So i would No not KCI or a private screening airport. Someone has some explaining to do @ASKasktsa

TWA884

Please get back on topic which is the new TSA pilot program of screening paper items.

This thread is not about screening food and milk, or private vs. public enhanced screening , or TSA uniforms, etc. We have active threads discussing all those topics.

Future off-topic posts will be deleted without further warnings. Repeat offenders will earn time off from posting.

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

petaluma1

In the article, TSA blames the screening contractor for instituting this "pilot program". Does anyone believe that TSA would allow a contractor to do this, in spite of what the article states?

chollie

Like I said, pretty clever of TSA. They are completely in charge, they call the shots, yet they want to make it sound like private security are a bunch of ham-handed rogues that got out-of-control and this would never happen at a gen-u-wine TSA-branded checkpoint.

Seems to me something similar happened shortly after Blogdad Bob started his piece. SFO was asking pax to take all electronics out - including cords, chargers. TSA 'stepped in' and straightened SFO's private security out and patted themselves on the back for doing so.

Just curious - do you know if the FSD at an airport with private security is a TSA employee? Because if so, it undercuts this bogus story even more, because you can guarantee that the FSD at this airport knew and approved what was going on (or should be fired if s/he didn't know what was going on).

petaluma1

I thought all FSDs are employed by the TSA, particularly since many oversee more than one airport. One James Spriggs seems to be the FSD overseeing airports in Missouri.

Boggie Dog

Thinking only of screening paper items, to stay on topic, usually when a contractor is providing a government service, in this case TSA type screening of paper items, the screening group will have its on management staff and down the line personnel. The government will provide contract performance monitors, in this case TSA employees who monitor that contract requirements are being met. To think of a contractor adding additional screening steps for paper items,or any other item, is just silly. Each additional work step is lost profit. Ain't gonna happen.

chollie

I hope this isn't going to lead to a new equivalent to the LGA rules, something along the lines of "You must remove any amount of paper or paper-like substances in excess of 2 cubic inches in volume and place it in a separate bin".

Or perhaps all books, magazines and newspapers will have to come out. Then some clever TSO looking to climb the ladder will start making pax remove Kindles and tablets because you can use them to read books and books have to come out.

I'm surprised they didn't make someone peel the label off an empty water bottle. Because, you know, it's paper....

Boggie Dog

I generally travel with the latest copy of American Rifleman or related mag when flying. Might prove interesting under this new policy if it continues.

GrayAnderson

*ahem*
No. The last administration had a whole slew of "pilot programs" as well. The one that stands out in my mind was the "security screening" that they sent a team (I believe it was one of those venomous snake teams) into the Savannah Amtrak station for...and so the team started screening pax as they got off the train (but only if they went into the station...though when the team that was there realized this there were apparently members of the team rushing outside to steer pax back into the station). That one, at least, stands out for its utter stupidity...and I very well remember Amtrak management publicly letting DHS have it.

In a sense the TSA's behavior isn't consistent across weeks, let alone across administrations. With that said, the "pattern of behavior" to which I refer is the mix of pointless pilot programs (and, as often as not, windfalls for government vendors), lack of transparency ("we don't talk about successes"), and so on. The fact that they are breaking new ground now does not excuse the fact that they broke plenty of new ground over the Obama years (and the Bush years) with all of those new scanners and so on that still don't prevent a 95% fail rate.

mauve

I would imagine you're safer with that than, say, Mother Jones.

Just make sure you don't have Aviation Week or any math journals.

GUWonder

The Anarchist Cookbook? It was a classic.

GUWonder

The TSA's most intrusive behavior is taking place under the current Admin. The current kind of TSA frontal rubs of even kids' genitals weren't part of prior Admins' SOP screening. The food and paper out intrusions weren't there before
like they are now. The intrusiveness level is new and that increased intrusiveness of this sort didn't exit under the prior two Admins.

FredAnderssen

I've got a copy. I've been pondering traveling with it. Maybe I'll pick up a copy of Mein Kampf and the Koran just for good measure.

GUWonder

I'm sure there is old work stuff which I can print out which would freak out some TSA employees. I probably even have old school material that would do the same -- things like over-simplified "designs" of nuclear weapons and maps of mines for some kinds of radioactive material. This is the kind of stuff that I would often have with me on flights when I was a younger busy-body, back when no one at airports ever cared to flip through these print-outs and manuals while I was flying. The TSA, however, is another story. They are part of the "see something, say something" problem, and this paper search will be used to make that problem worse than it is.