Originally Posted by goalie (Post 11636885)

wtg HSVTSO Dean ^^^ and tootsie-pops all around. tho one question....did you get any tornadic bonus/extra credit points? ;)

Originally Posted by HSVTSO Dean (Post 11636390)

Hah. :p



It's not that kind of test, but, in essence, they did and have. Read on:



That it turns a whole bunch of us into heaping, walking wrecks of bundled nerves.

Someone you don't know from outside of the airport, travels to your airport to conduct the testing (in years previous, this was a contracted position to Lockheed-Martin. Now, as I understand it, it's Training Instructors from other airports within the TSA). We're tested on our technical proficiency and procedural capabilities with a hand-held metal detector, a full-body physical pat down, a full physical search of a suitcase, and, for checked baggage or dual-function TSOs (like us in HSV) three additional suitcases using checked baggage procedures (and, maybe, whatever they use in airports with EDS machines~).

Essentially, so the theory goes, if one simply does everything exactly as one is supposed to do as per the SOP, saying what one is supposed to say and doing what one is supposed to be doing, then one will pass with 100%. Nerves are a problem, though.

Originally Posted by Bart (Post 11646918)

Kicking over the hornet's nest in Omni. :D

Originally Posted by Bart (Post 11800548)

Well, Friends, I'll finally get to see for myself how well-trained officers are at other airports. This week I'll be on the road evaluating officers for their annual skills certification. I have a feeling that I'll probably find myself on the road for the rest of the fiscal year, so I'll get to experience a lot of checkpoint screening as well.

This should be interesting.

Originally Posted by Boggie Dog (Post 11800958)

Seems an interesting experiment would be to have an unknown person transit a number of checkpoints and evaluate the experience.

When you evaluate any group and they know that is what's going on you should get their best performance.

You guys need to see whats going on from the perspective of a regular flier. Like the secret shopper idea posted on PV some months ago.

Originally Posted by Bart (Post 11800548)

Well, Friends, I'll finally get to see for myself how well-trained officers are at other airports. This week I'll be on the road evaluating officers for their annual skills certification. I have a feeling that I'll probably find myself on the road for the rest of the fiscal year, so I'll get to experience a lot of checkpoint screening as well.

This should be interesting.

Originally Posted by TSORon (Post 11801949)

We do, they are called the TSA Red Team. Headquarters TSA sends out this team of people who try and bring bombs, knives, and guns through the checkpoint. They are pretty sneaky about it, hiding things in odd places and pretending to be people with disabilities and such. Reasonably good acting as well.

We also have our own people going around to satellite airports (at least in my area) doing basically the same thing. TSI’s grab a new hire TSO and give then the scenario to try and see what happens.

Originally Posted by goalie (Post 11802158)

good luck ^ and and by any chance, sfo, lax, iad or jax this coming w/e ;)

these are the same "announced/advance warning given" tests like they had at ewr, (which ewr still failed) right? :rolleyes: