I carry my gps unit in my carryon. I have it stored in a eagle creek padded quarter cube. I can get my nuvi 760, suction cup mount and power/traffic reciever cord in there with room to spare

I carry my TomTom with me in my handbag on most trips. Never been questioned or looked at.

Though to be fair, they usually miss the bottle of nail polish, eye drops, and small hand lotion that's usually in there too :P

Got through security with no issues on yesterday's flight. Tom-Tom was tucked away in my laptop bag, and the TSO's never said a word.

I’d have to agree with you, both do. And both have some bad apples. Every workplace in the world does, and the TSA is no different.

Unless one is willing to invest in hard sided, high security luggage, then there is no such thing as a secure bag. Nothing prevents a thief from using a small and sharp knife to cut open the normal soft/cloth sided bags and taking whatever they like. TSA keys are not needed. I don’t even need a knife to get into most bags with locks on them, I can do it with a screwdriver and never leave a mark.

Bring it. Just please don’t pack it in a bag that has 4,000 other electronic devices in it. That will delay you unnecessarily, and force a bag check.

Ron ... the question isn't "secure vs. unsecure". We all know that security is not measured in "yes/no" terms, but in relative terms. Scoow's point is that TSA policy makes it easier for people to access the interior of bags.

In many cases, it's about crimes of opportunity. If a thief (working either for TSA or for the airlines) wants to look through a bag to find something interesting to steal, does it make more sense to look at an unlocked bag, or a locked bag that can be forced open? The unlocked bag will be quicker to open, and therefore presents less risk of detection for the thief.

The plain fact is that incidents of theft from passenger luggage have increased since TSA imposed its policy --- first, requiring all bags to be unlocked, and later allowing TSA-approved locks.

Plain fact? Opinion is far more likely. If not though, and I am willing to maintain an open mind on the subject, I'm sure you will be willing to provide us with some supporting data for the statement, right?

By all means I would love to, but that information is SSI, top secret. Considering your past "if you only knew what we knew" statements your request for proof is is a joke. The TSA requires passengers to either leave their luggage unlocked or use TSA lock which is about as effective in preventing theft as an unlocked bag.

The TSA policy makes theft easier, then the TSA and the airlines blame each other when it happens.

'Handful'? Even the TSA's own statements, now several years old, puts the number of sticky-fingered screeners at 500 & counting.

That is not, by any means, a 'handful'.

And the fact that, by your own admission, 'PHL just caught another one last week' shows that the sticky-fingered among you is not 'being weeded out'; they are just being replaced as they are caught.

I'm no great fan of the TSA or its operations, but....

In 50 years of air travel, I've never had anything stolen from a bag, and never locked one either, but then in the "Good Old Days" we contemplated that a locked bag was to a prospective thief the equivalent of the matador's red muleta in the face of the bull, restraining ourselves from packing expensive, pawnable/fencible items.

I notice the TSA at my local flughafen inspecting my bag more than statistics, presumably since a couple of them used to work for me. They seem to work in pairs, a sort of moral suasion against theft, unlike lowly and low paid baggage handlers, shuffling bags alone. Of course, one of the TSAers I know would lift both quarters holding down a decedent's eyelids at a wake (and not tip the parking valet), but in all honesty and experience, I'd rate the average TSAer as, though not very bright, without an overwhelming propensity to risk serious consequences, if caught looting bags. Sure, as with Congressmembers and corporate moguls, some of them may have the morals of the offspring of alley cats and procurers of little children for pederasts, but I don't view them as, in raw percentages at least, any more crooked than the average collection of air travelers.

That's not to say that TSA staff habits are above reproach, or that among the many are some bad eggs, just as there are bellmen who ravage bags in hotel checkroom, crooked Skycaps and a crew of baggage handlers in some airports recruited from Local 47 of the Amalgamated Felons Union.

In all honesty, I suspect that many of the accusations are hypothecations that the "Damnable TSA done it!" represent the sort of collective, institutionalized paranoia with which so many of us at FT view the TSA, probably deservedly on many counts, but least so as baggage thieves.

I evaluate the posts of some of the folks who scream the loudest about baggage theft as coming from those who end up as my spouse once did, leaving the camera on the dresser at home, or even more likely, in a hotel drawer. I've not seen a recent FBI profile for the theft rate among chambermaids, but doubt it's much higher or lower than for the general population. We live in a world where purloining the belongings or privileges of others runs rampant, but from what I've seen, the TSA's institutional controls are substantially better than are others covering folks in contact with baggage at airports or elsewhere. They are not freight handlers at JFK, legendary for selective pillaging of air cargo....

Our complaints are valid and supportable when it comes to the TSA, but we might be more effective at criticizing structure, policies and procedures, Than the sort of blanket blindsiding which we levy upon the admittedly often block-headed front line staff.

Wow...just, wow.
First to the OP: I've always and will always carry electronics as carry-on. The one time I put an (old, outdated, heavy) laptop in a TSA-locked checked bag...you guessed it: gone. (IAD-DFW) No great loss, but the principle remains.

But I can't let the posts from TSO_PHL_Gate_D go without comment.

I've always treated TSAs with, if not respect, at least common courtesy. I don't make small talk with them because, frankly, it makes my skin crawl. But I've never been hostile or rude to them. I think TSO_PHL_Gate_D may have pushed me over to the dark side of open hostility. If I can make your day just a little bit worse in a tiny, little way; I will. A surly tone of voice, upside down ID, passing gas at your little podium....Lord that sounds so childish. But it seems that is the only level that's understood.

Thanks TSO_PHL_Gate_D.

You consider this article to be "supporting data"? An Op-Ed piece?

You wont believe how much that tells me about how some of the people here think. If the author were to write “The sky if falling” I feel that some here would immediately begin seeking shelter underground.

Ron, on the off chance that you are not simply trying to be argumentative, why don't you spend a little time trolling the PV blog. There have been numerous postings re: the ongoing problem of sticky fingers amongst the screening force complete w/commentary from TSA official spokespeople &, now very outdated, statistics including the number of said sticky finger screeners fired for being exactly that. (Note that does not include those who resigned or are still in the 'active investigation' process or haven't been caught yet').

Was there a problem w/baggage theft prior to the TSA's creation? Absolutely. And that has continued. The problem is that the TSA has added a whole new element & opportunity for baggage theft that didn't exist previously; perhaps someday you will understand this, as well as the traveler anger that has come along with it.

If you wish to continue thinking we, the traveling public who fund your on-going 'security theater', are simply making this up in order to make yourself feel better about the agency you continue to work for, that's up to you, but it won't change the facts that even your own agency admits to publicly.

Just like the plain fact that it is illegal to take more than $10,000 out of the country, eh, Ron?