By which I mean some guy working airport security picking up a left-behind iPad and keeping it for himself.
Two things worth noting, as much as I dislike the TSA' lame-brained procedures (and, in some cases, some TSA — those working at Denver are usually reasonably nice, but the ones in at LAX are just bullies):
1. Small sample. ABC News left behind ten iPads, and at places where there have been lots of reports of theft. Nine were, in fact, handled properly. One was stolen by a TSA inspector. That doesn't meant that 10% of TSA inspectors are crooks, let alone all of them.
2. The article's end should be repeated:
'Republicans have promised to fix this problem by firing the unionized federal workers and replacing them with private contractors. Because private contractors — not directly accountable to the government, insulated by layers of contractor/subcontractor relationships — would never, ever abuse their authority. Which is why mall security guards are the pinnacle of policing efficiency.'
And Blackwater mercs were the epitome of law-abiding security in Iraq,
And, yes, I'm old enough (as are most of you) to recall complaints of how uneven but generally poor the private security that used to do inspections pre-9/11 was, too. Because, if nothing else, airports wanted to save money and hire the cheapest rent-a-cops they could.
And note that, even if the TSA were completely privatized tomorrow, much of the public's complaints about them is not about their being a federal workforce, but because of the poor procedures they follow (unreasonably rigid when they don't need to be, unreasonably arbitrary whenever a TSA inspector decides to be) — and those come from Homeland Security and would be the same for whatever private security forces were hire instead.
At any rate, I sincerely hope this guy gets nailed to the wall and does time. And that his picture and story get posted in the break room of every TSA checkpoint in the country. Because not only is this theft, but a breach of public trust and, arguably, a national security risk, too (heck, anything the public does wrong at a checkpoint gets a national security threat hung on it — why not the TSA?).
Embedded Link
iPad left at airport checkpoint ends up at TSA inspector's house
ABC News ran a sting against dirty TSA inspectors by leaving behind iPads (with tracking spyware) at ten airport checkpoints known for theft and following them electronically. One iPad, left at an Orl…
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