trvlr64

I had a good chuckle after talking with a TSA agent in FLL the other day. She actually equated herself to a law enforcement officer.

Are they equal to police?

OneOfMany

Are they equal to police?

I am one, and even I would be rolling my eyes and shaking my head to her stupid comment, along with putting as much room between me and her before the insults started to fly.

halls120

Of course she did. She has a badge, so she must be a Real Law Enforcement Officer!

whirledtraveler

They have less enforcement power than mall security guards.

spotnik

No, not equal to police. Not even close.

knotyeagle

Not only no but frack no. I would have not turned down the opportunity to show her the error of her thinking within a microsecond.

Paolo01

I know that we are all chuckling right now but remember that TSA now includes FAM's who are in fact LEO's.

knotyeagle

Incorrect. Federal Flight Deck Officers are not Federal Air Marshals, they authorized to carry issued firearms but are not trained Federal law enforcement officers. But the issue was a TSA screener with a dark blue uniform shirt and a gold badge that says "officer". I would have verbally eviscerated her.

And yes I did have Federal law enforcement credentials from 1979 to 1982 while in the US Coast Guard. I probably did more arrests and filed more cases than she has lately.

seoulmanjr

TSOs are glorified rent-a-cops and have no LEO powers whatsoever. They can't arrest you and I don't think they can detain you -- they can just call over a real cop for any of that. They pretty much have to call a real cop over for anything as far as I know, but I'm sure other FTers who know more/better can correct me.

I have a buddy who is a cop in Philly. He said that a TSO tried to show his "badge" when he got pulled over. This was before the recent tin badges came out. The TSO actually took the cloth TSA badge and put it in his wallet to 'flash'. It was the best laugh they had down at the precinct in a while.

peace,
~Ben~

PS> Obviously, this statement excludes FAMS and, perhaps, some bomb sniffin' dogs...

Paolo01

Yes, you are correct. I just think that we should be clear that there are in fact LEO's within the TSA.

GoingAway

agreed. I'd get a real LEO and ask them to explain the difference to the misguided fool. Isn't impersonating a LEO a federal or at least state offense?

Paolo01

I edited because I realized I had an equals sign in there pretty much which they are not, but on the plane they (Federal Flight Deck Officers) are Marshals and on the plane only. You got to this before I edited it.

SouthsideJAX

Yeah, they are cops like garbage men are sanitation engineers.

num1bearsfan

The bottom level TSO's are peons. They hire these guys off the street with no qualifications to speak of. They are hired, probably get a couple weeks of classroom training, and are put out to work. At some point I think someone must be blowing some smoke up their rear ends trying to give them an inflated sense of self importance. Just their title, TSO (Transportation Safety Officer?). I would not doubt it if some of them let it go to their heads and they like to pretend that they are on the same playing field as cops. In reality, they're SOO not anything like cops.

In my spare time I fiddle around with radio equipment of various types and use ham radios. In my hobby, we have a community of people that we refer to as "whackers". They earn this distinction by driving second hand crown vics, adding on official looking lights, and overall trying to exude to impression of being some sort of official figure. I've even heard of extreme cases where a group of them will get together and form an organization and drive around trying to conduct semi official police business. You can lookup a group called "react". They serve no other purpose than to drive around saving the world with their ham radios. It's an overall dork fest.

Whether we're talking about radio nerds, renta cops, or TSA. We refer to these types as "whackers".

Paolo01

I'll think twice about ever making fun of another TSA now