{"id":128776,"date":"2015-11-12T09:19:35","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T16:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/12\/is-it-time-to-close-the-tsa.html"},"modified":"2015-11-12T16:10:05","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T23:10:05","slug":"is-it-time-to-close-the-tsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/12\/is-it-time-to-close-the-tsa.html","title":{"rendered":"Is it time to close the TSA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The answer, to my mind, is "No." But that comes with an observation and an alternative.<\/p>\n

The article states:<\/p>\n

'Fearmongers might howl, but abolishing the agency wouldn’t make air travel less secure. Given the TSA’s 95 percent failure rate, it would likely make it more secure. The airlines themselves should bear the chief responsibility for protecting planes and passengers at airports. After all, they have powerful financial incentives to ensure that flights are free of danger, while at the same time minimizing the indignities to which customers are subjected. Their bottom line would be at stake. The TSA feels no such spur.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Ah, yes, the "for-profit is smarter and more effective than public leeches" argument.<\/p>\n

But privatized, airport-based security is what we had pre-9\/11, and my memory is not so short as to remember what a shambles that was, with minimal standards enforced willy-nilly by cheapest-bidder rent-a-cops. Those "powerful incentives" existed then and, frankly, the airlines and airports were much more responsive to not inconveniencing paying customers.<\/p>\n

Hijackings, terrorist attacks, those are all one-off and rare events that no sane business plan spends more than the minimal amount of money on. Turning the security of airplanes back over to folk who are more interested in this quarter's earnings (and consumer ratings) is not a good idea.<\/p>\n

Especially if those firms are required to enforce the same security regulations and requirements that the TSA does. Because that's where the real problem lies: what we are currently doing for airport security is not just annoying, but of dubious effectiveness. While the lack of a major terrorist attack on commercial airliners since 9\/11 might imply that the TSA is doing something right, tests of how poorly they are behaving demonstrate that the threat out there must not actually be all that high. If Evil Terrorists were out to blow up or take over planes, the craptastic detection numbers at the security checkpoints demonstrate that's not how they are trying to do it.<\/p>\n

So let's go on lopping off heads at the top, where the buck stops, but let's also re-evaluate what we're actually doing at those airport check points. Yeah, it's embarrassing to go back and say, "Maybe we don't need to put everyone through those disintegration chambers we spent gazillions of dollars on, so let's take them out," but that conversation needs to take place no matter who's paying the paychecks of the folk manning the checkpoints. <\/p>\n

Figuring out a more effective, and sustainable, passenger security check regimen should be step 1. Replacing the TSA has little to do with that, and arguably will be a hindrance since for-profit privatizing of that security process will be motivated by primarily by something other than security. Reform what we are asking the TSA to do first, before discussing who best can do it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nTime to close the TSA – The Boston Globe<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The answer, to my mind, is "No." But that comes with an observation and an alternative. The article states: 'Fearmongers might howl, but abolishing the agency wouldn’t make air travel less secure. Given the TSA’s 95 percent failure rate, it would likely make it more secure. The airlines themselves should bear the chief responsibility for … Continue reading “Is it time to close the TSA?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-travel-security-tsa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30401,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/28\/a-new-secure-way-to-pick-up-an-ipad.html","url_meta":{"origin":128776,"position":0},"title":"A new, secure way to pick up an iPad","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-Sep-12 4:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10704,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/15\/you_can_eat_out_any_time.html","url_meta":{"origin":128776,"position":1},"title":"You can eat out any time you like, but you can never leave","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Nov-06 4:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems that air traffic controllers at Denver International have an interesting dilemma. Their contract with the FAA says that they are paid for lunch time. So if they leave...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128503,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/another-day-another-deserved-lambasting-of-the-tsa.html","url_meta":{"origin":128776,"position":2},"title":"Another day, another deserved lambasting of the TSA","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Nov-15 7:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"That said, a couple of thoughts:1. If we deem weapon detection (to choose a metric) to be vital, then what is the magic target that we want airport security (of whatever sort) to find? 10%? 25%? 50%? 95%? 100% ? What level of intrusiveness and delay are we willing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137042,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/05\/the-germiest-place-in-the-airport-the-security-line.html","url_meta":{"origin":128776,"position":3},"title":"The germiest place in the airport? The security line","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Sep-18 11:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"All those hands and germs and sighs and growls and stuff make those buckets of x-ray baggage pretty viral, and not in a popular way. And how often do you think those touched-by-everyone buckets get cleaned? I might keep my eyes open for a Purell station after going through my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/tsa-security-line.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130883,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/time-for-your-monthly-analysis-of-the-tsa-and-its-many-problems.html","url_meta":{"origin":128776,"position":4},"title":"Time for your monthly analysis of the TSA and its many problems","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Jun-16 8:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, it's something I circle back to on a regular basis. This particular article does a good job looking at some of the reasons why the TSA has so many problems. (Hint: it's not just because of the TSA.) The TSA Is Bad Because We Demand That It Be Bad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12460,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/26\/i_feel_secure.html","url_meta":{"origin":128776,"position":5},"title":"I! Feel! SECURE!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 26-Apr-08 4:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Um ... what do you think would happen to you if you tried to sneak a gun past security at the TSA checkpoint in Denver? Well, apparently, if you've...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/tsa-plastic-bag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128779,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128776\/revisions\/128779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}