Its in everybody's interest to not have people wandering around the airport all day and night. Your absolutely right when you say the airlines control who comes in and out. That would be why THEY issue the passes, gate and boarding. By taking them, we try to ensure that once the person is finished his business and leaves, they cannot enter the secure area again without the airlines approval. Why does the TSA need "some control"? Because we are the security. We are responsible for whoever passes through the checkpoint and into the airport. If someone inside shoots someone, who are you going to blame? The TSA. Because it would be our fault that a gun was taken inside. And I'm sure that you would be one of the first one's to point that out.

Why? I'm sure the merchants inside the secure area would rather have more people there to shop. Several airports (Including PIT IIRC) have shopping malls in the secure area that were designed just for such casual shoppers!

I have to disagree with this entire post. The bolded portion, in particular, is simply false. You aren't the "security." You're the metal detector/x-ray/ETD operators. That's all. The police provide the "security" in the airport.

Early on, the TSA law envisioned that the TSA would also hire thousands of armed TSA police, but that never came to pass and never will, given the agency's management failures and spendthrift ways.

Like I said I can only speak about what I know here. Our shops inside,(there are basically none outside the sterile area), are all closed by 10:00 PM. Anyone lucky enough to be stuck inside at night has absolutely nothing to do. I do know they have been trying to come up with some sort of system that would allow people that are not flying to be able to come in and shop. But so far, nothing. As for the comment that was made that the police are the security, that's true. But the police are understaffed to and it usually takes them a while to get anywhere in the airport. So here, we are used as security until the police arrive. Please don't tell me we're not, you don't know what goes on everywhere.

Bambi, be very careful about taking actions outside the scope of your authority. And when I talk about authority, I am referring to only statutory and regulatory authority. TSA's authority at the screening stations is to search for prohibited items. That is the extent of TSA security there. The TSA may leave you high and dry if you perform actions outside of the TSA mandate (no matter what your supervisors may say).

No, it is not. During the Hurricane Rita evacuation, the check-in line was so long that there was no way for me to obtain a gate pass to assist my mother-in-law out to the gate. So I couldn't go through security. I had to leave the airport. When they canceled her flight, I was informed that she would be left in the baggage claim area for me to pick her up. If you did not have this "control", then I would have been able to assist her, allay her fears and handle the situation. But no, I was not able to do that because of TSA "control".

Tell that to my sister and her children when my brother-in-law has headed out to Iraq that they can not go to the gate to see him off. The last view is him going through security and him and his possessions becoming subject to search. Kind of ironic for this country that prides itself on freedom, especially when he is going to Iraq to instill these same kind of freedoms.

Some great memories growing up was being at the gate waiting for my father to come off that plane after his being gone for weeks on an international trip. Those type of memories can't happen today. It is not the same waiting on the other side of security. Something has been lost.

Have you checked with your supervisors to see if keeping the gate passes is not a violation of the Privacy Act. Other airports do not keep them and they don't appear to be any riskier or more out of control.

I didn't ask why, but what was "some control" that the TSA needed, which was your proferred primary reason that only passengers could be airside. As you agreed to above, the airlines have the control about who enters, not the TSA.

Why would the TSA be any more likely to miss a gun of a non-passenger than of a passenger? Is it your reasoning is that if fewer people go through the checkpoints, then fewer prohibited items will be missed? If so, that doesn't give one great solace. It shouldn't matter if one or a million persons go through a checkpoint every day if you have the resources to give each the required TSA screening.

I believe that a policy was passed that family members could go to the gates with departing serviceman. They are also allowed to go to the gates when they are returning. I don't think it was publicized, but it is there. I think the airlines are supposed to be issuing gate passes for this purpose. About the rest, I can only tell you what I"ve been told. I cannot speculate why some policies are in place, I think alot of them suck.

Some great memories growing up was being at the gate waiting for my father to come off that plane after his being gone for weeks on an international trip. Those type of memories can't happen today. It is not the same waiting on the other side of security. Something has been lost.


This is a different world than what we grew up in. I did not create it. And it truly is sad, but until someone comes up with an alternative, this is what we have. During the hurricane evacuation, why is it our fault you couldn't get through security? Why didn't the airlines have extra help for just that reason??

What would be the problem from the TSA's view if others were permitted to go airside (other than the additional required resources)?

Because if there were not TSA rules about who can go airside, then I would have been able to take care of my mother-in-law. You may recall all the reports about the Houston TSA screeners not showing up for work during the Hurricane Rita evacuation. If TSA doesn't show up, that can back up many and cause people to miss their flights, which requires more service than usual from the airlines. So I don't necessarily fault the airlines when TSA professionals don't show when it is mission critical time.

But there are rules. So now its the airlines fault for not having anyone to issue the pass to you. All the reports said the lines were at the ticket counters, not at security.

All reports? Actually, the press reports I read talked about the security lines. I actually said otherwise for my time at IAH, but that was for only my limited experience there. HOU was bad from what I read.

"Scores of Transportation Security Administration luggage checkers at Bush Intercontinental Airport and Houston Hobby Airport failed to show up to work, creating snarls at baggage checkpoints. The absences were not excused, Dallas-based TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said." Houston Chronicle

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion...m_x.htm?csp=34