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Comparison - TSA vs. Team SFO
So, I just got back from a quick trip out to the West Coast. An excellent opportunity to compare the TSA employees at IAD against the contract security team at SFO - you remember them don't you? The ones that routinely detect a far greater percentage of prohibited items than their federalized colleagues?
At both locations, the screening was fairly rapid, but that's because in both instances, it was early in the morning, and not crowded in either location. ID checkers, Moat dragons and WMTD operators seemed to be working from the same playbook in both locations. What I found really interesting is the comparative staffing levels. At IAD, immediately beyond the ID checkers and before the Moat, there were FIVE TSO's standing around - conversing with each other. Not observing the passengers in line. Not watching other TSO employees. Basically just shooting the breeze with each other. So this morning when I got to SFO, I looked for a similar gaggle. Couldn't find one on either side of the Moat. What I saw at SFO is every Team SFO security person working. Not BSing with colleagues. Just one more example of wasteful government spending. Congratulations, TSA, you've managed to created another bloated, inefficient, government bureaucracy. |
sfo is my home airport and i have found (save the moat dragons*) that "team sfo"-ua is by far one of the best, most efficient, most polite and most adept at dealing with folks who happen to be an "orthopedic shoe terrorist" like me. ^
*the moat dragons on the other hand are absolute incompetent "i can't think outside the box" morons and iirc, are not "team sfo" but a separate private company. they are downright rude and do not see anything other than "you cannot have more than two bags"....i had 3 bags but i was being proactive as the "3rd bag" was a small tablet pc bag which i knew would have to come out of my wheels for x-ray so when i packed, i left space for it as it would go right into my wheels as soon as i was done with security. the little witch would have none of it even with me explaining it to her. "you have 3 bags, you have 3 bags, you have 3 bags".... so like those who have thought about "dropping trou" when a screener is giving them grief, i simply dropped to my knees, opened my wheels and proceeded to (and very slowly i might add) re-pack my wheels and hold up the line. i thought the little witch would blow a gasket as she started yelling at me that i couldn't do that right there. i told her that if she wanted me to have 2 bags, i will have 2 bags and that if she had a problem, she had better get her supervisor. i finished packing walked about 3 feet from her and dropped to my knees and unpacked the bag with her looking at me. i thought the pax behind me was gonna die laughing over what i did and he told me that he wished he had the stones to do what i just did. but again, that was my experience with a moat dragon and is not representative of team sfo as they rock afaic. |
A wee comparison:
TSA - requires ID Team SFO - requires ID advantage: neither TSA - requires BP Team SFO - requires BP advantage: neither TSA - restricts liquids in a stupid and un-necessary manner Team SFO - restricts liquids in a stupid and un-necessary manner advantage: neither TSA - 100% Shoe Carnival Team SFO - 100% Shoe Carnival advantage: neither TSA - screens checked bags outside out passengers' control. No accountability for theft or introduction of bombs/drugs/etc. Team SFO - screens checked bags outside out passengers' control. No accountability for theft or introduction of bombs/drugs/etc. advantage: neither Conclusion: They both suck and should be destroyed. :td: |
SFO is my home airport too. "Team SFO" is usually relatively quick, but they are not friendly. They don't usually yell, but I've been snapped at a few times. They are not nice, but I just try to avoid any possible interaction with them.
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Team SFO
I'll take team SFO any day. They have a large advantage with the ability to add technology (based on "cost savings” that government agencies cannot do) that adds to the overall security. A contractor can make an agreement to build a command center, communications or video networks with an airport with saved funds from efficiencies that TSA cannot and those items over time with proper use will create a more efficient workforce. The base argument that is made everytime you compare a private company and a government agency.
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Yea, I have to say they're least problematic in my experience. Once (one day after the liquids scare) I had my bag swab tested because of the number of gadgets in it, but it was done with professionalism, and the girl repacked it better than it was before. She was cute too :D.
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So, I just got back from a quick trip out to the West Coast. An excellent opportunity to compare the TSA employees at IAD against the contract security team at SFO - you remember them don't you? The ones that routinely detect a far greater percentage of prohibited items than their federalized colleagues? Federal transportation officials and a private security firm at San Francisco International Airport worked together to undermine a federal investigation of passenger screening at security checkpoints, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For 16 months ending last year, Transportation Security Administration employees tipped off screeners from Covenant Aviation Security that undercover agents were on their way to the airport's checkpoints to test whether the screeners were properly inspecting passengers and their carry-on luggage, the report said. ... From August 2003 until May 2004, TSA officials and Covenant managers at the airport "notified screening personnel in advance when a tester was approaching a checkpoint and provided their descriptions," the report states. Officials in the airport's screening control center tracked the undercover testers with surveillance cameras and on foot, the report said, and "broadcast descriptions and locations of testers to the checkpoints to assist supervisors in identifying testers and to facilitate passing the covert penetration tests." According to the report, the practice of notifying SFO passenger screeners in advance of covert testers stopped in May 2004, when a Covenant employee in the airport's screening control center refused to provide the descriptions and locations of testers and urged Covenant's management to intervene. However, the report said, TSA and Covenant officials continued until January 2005 to notify Covenant personnel in SFO's screening control center "of the start of covert security testing and directed them to notify checkpoint-screening supervisors that covert security testing was beginning." |
Originally Posted by oneofthosepeopleyouloveto hate
(Post 11117935)
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Originally Posted by Superguy
(Post 11118086)
Funny thing is that TSA was also tipped off in a lot of places and still did worse. :rolleyes:
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Originally Posted by Superguy
(Post 11118086)
Funny thing is that TSA was also tipped off in a lot of places and still did worse. :rolleyes:
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I did four RT (PHL, IND, LAX and PHX) with a regular size tube of toothpaste (not intentionally) in my shaving bag. It was on the last trip coming home that the screener caught my error and had the then nearly empty tube confiscated. I don't believe that means PHX is better than PHL, IND and LAX as the tube was nearly empty, just that the screener took the time to identify the items displayed on the screen instead of a cursory look.
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Originally Posted by oneofthosepeopleyouloveto hate
(Post 11118094)
Source?
TSA Tipped Off Screeners About Security Test
Originally Posted by WaPo
The Transportation Security Administration promotes its programs to ensure security by using undercover operatives to test its airport screeners. In one instance, however, the agency thwarted such a test by alerting screeners across the country that it was under way, even providing descriptions of the undercover agents.
The government routinely runs covert tests at airports to ensure that security measures are sufficient to stop a terrorist from bringing something dangerous onto an airplane. Alerting screeners to an undercover officer's timing and appearance would defeat the purpose. But that's exactly what happened on April 28, 2006, according to an e-mail from a top TSA official who oversees security operations. In an e-mail to more than a dozen recipients, including airport security staff, the TSA official warned that "several airport authorities and airport police departments have recently received informal notice" of security testing being carried out by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration. TSA screeners found to cheat; probe expands
Originally Posted by Washington Times
An investigation of airport security at Mississippi's Jackson-Evers International Airport shows screeners cheated during a covert test, prompting the Homeland Security Department's inspector general to expand his investigation to other airports.
The preliminary investigation by inspector Richard L. Skinner released yesterday said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees were alerted before what was supposed to be a surprise inspection in February 2004 and were told to "be on our p's and q's, the Red Team is in the area." Screeners were told the sex and race of the undercover passengers, and knew "the location of test items in the checked and carry-on baggage or the location of such items on the tester," Mr. Skinner's report said. "We could not identify, with absolute certainty, where the advance information originated from, but this information was communicated to certain individuals at all levels of TSA personnel at the Jackson-Evers International Airport," the report said. http://www.pascrell.house.gov/list/p...t_Newark.shtml Link the story (no longer available at the source): http://www.whackbag.com/showthread.php?t=59176 SFO may have gotten wrapped for cheating but even so, it still cheated better than its TSA counterparts. :D Super |
Originally Posted by oneofthosepeopleyouloveto hate
(Post 11117935)
Most fake bombs missed by screeners Updated 10/22/2007 11:14 AM By John Zich, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY. Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows. At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons — including toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco. DHS Inspector General Criticizes TSA Controls of Screener Badges, Uniforms, and ID Cards By Matthew Harwood 10/20/2008 - The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Inspector General (IG) Richard L. Skinner criticized the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for not having proper policies to keep track of employee uniforms and badges at the nation's airports in a redacted report released Friday. The TSA "does not have adequate controls in place to manage and account for airport security identification display area badges, uniforms, and identification cards provided to its employees," the report's executive summary read. "Unauthorized individuals' access to those items increases an airport's level of risk to a wide variety of terrorist and criminal acts." ..... The IG's report cited three primary failures by TSA. First, the agency did not notify airport SIDA badge offices when employees left their job to ensure that display area badges were retrieved or returned to the office. Second, TSA did not record or track whom the uniform was given to, nor collect the uniform after an employee left the agency or protect and account for surplus stocks of uniforms. Finally, the IG criticized TSA for not keeping accurate records for identification cards or for ensuring that the cards were returned and destroyed when an employee left the agency. "The Nation's airports face potentially increased risk because TSA is not adequately controlling airport SIDA badges, uniforms, and ID cards issued to TSA employees," the report warned. |
SFO may have gotten wrapped for cheating but even so, it still cheated better than its TSA counterparts. At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons — including toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco. |
Originally Posted by oneofthosepeopleyouloveto hate
(Post 11120623)
How did they "cheat better"? The articles cited say nothing about whether the TSOs passed or failed the tests after being tipped off.
Call me a cynic, but due to SFO's history of circumventing covert testing, I'd suspect there still is some monkey business going on there! |
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