TSA Fails Most Tests
 

http://abcnews.go.com/US/tsa-fails-t...ry?id=51022188

Maybe they should start paying more attention to their xray and NoS screens and less attention to their cellphones and people's genitals.

Pissy doesn't deserve a bonus for this lackluster performance, but he'll probably get one because catching 20% of contraband is so much better than catching 5%.

Perhaps if TSA fully staffed more lanes, they wouldn't have such horrendous long lines and the resulting chaos. They might find it easier to concentrate on the task at hand without all the self-generated pressure and distractions.

I'm sure the last test failures were followed up with a list of recommendations for TSA. I wonder if they bothered to follow those recommendations (because I seriously doubt they were responsible for the increased focus on genitals and breast milk).

It's interesting to see TSA faulted for not following procedure. Someone should have reminded the testers that screeners have the final say on what actual procedures are at the checkpoint and in baggage search.

Well, we can't blame the former TSA Administrator for this years round of tests and have yet had a naming contest for Pekoske.

Seems TSA is doing somewhat better than the 95% failure rate of the last testing that made it to the pubic but how hard is it to improve on a 95% failure rate?

I think this passage from the link in OP's post is interesting:

Wasn't expanding the use of pooches suppose to be how to speed up TSA checkpoints?

2001 to 2017 and it seems that TSA is still flailing away at doing things that minimum pay contractors were doing adequately and for way less than $8,000,000,000.00 taxpayer dollars each year.

"The TSA is taking these findings very seriously" -- TSA Spokesman

"Give us more money for better screener machines and we will be able to see items in carryon luggage." -- TSA Chief in testimony to the US Congress

This is at least the second budget year that I can recall in which TSA has intentionally slowed lines and implemented more odious screening methodology in a blatant and transparent attempt to extort more budget from Congress with outright lies that buying new machines or hiring more people will keep the Bad Guys at bay, reduce the three-hour waits, and eliminate the 95% failure to detect Bad Things.

And let's not forget extorting the general public - "if you had PreCheck, you'd already be home!"

It certainly slows it down at MSP.

A few weeks ago, I was at work at DIA. I went out of security to visit an office in the main terminal and went back to the A Concourse security point. TSA had closed off all but 1 access point and the screening line was long and growing. They even funneled employees and TSA Pre Check into the same long line. It turns out they brought out the explosive detection dog out and was walking up and down the line.

In order to professionalize, you need to Federalize :-(

Yes, it seems the dogs are slowing the lines down. If Pres are supposedly trusted travelers, why are they being sent past the dog? Also, from what I can deduce, the dogs are NOT being walked past passengers but passengers are being forced to divert so that they walk past the dog.

I use to know a guy that was a canine handler. As I remember canines have a very short attention span which limits their work day to pretty short periods. I just don't see how TSA using canines is a long term solution to anything that TSA does.

The real question is why can't TSA train its employees to actually screen for threat items? Is it because these people are looking for things that just don't matter, playing mind games, and fondling genitals?

If TSA is missing somewhere around 80% of threat items then it is clear we are not getting the TSA that our $8,000,000,000.00 annual tax dollars worth.

Fro the ABC link:

A sentiment that has been repeatedly stated for years by many posters on FT.

I wonder what the TSA's failure rate was before the current scope 'n grope regime went into place? We didn't hear much about it back in those days.

Their attempts at increasing security produce the opposite effect.

Two years ago 95%.

I'm more curious about pre-scope (2008?), when TSA transitioned from annoyance to atrocity. TSA was reasonably good at staying out of the headlines until they started scope n' grope.

Yes, one of the ways. The number of ED dogs dedicated to aviation is constantly expanding. The Viper teams are not dedicated to aviation but work any of the modes that TSA has responsibility to "secure." I believe some of the K9s used by Viper teams are being redirected to being dedicated to aviation.


And that is one of the most important points - all of this could be done for WAY less. But TSA is not simply about transportation - it is a highly important aspect of domestic security objectives that could not be achieved without an entity such as TSA providing "cover."