TSA fails most tests in latest undercover operation at US airports

a reply to: face23785

The private sector hasn't done any better on these metrics than the TSA has done. Believe it or not, they've actually done worse.

The private sector is only more efficient if you're working on a volume based monetization model. Under private sector logic, there's no reason to pay a second screener when you can eventually process everyone with just one. It's simply another expense. There's also no reason in this situation to use a volume based contract as the number of flying customers is fixed.

As a result, it makes sense to use the government as they don't need to worry about profits, and can in turn have more screeners. That they don't is merely an issue of budgeting.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

It just goes to show you privatization of government JUST doesn't work!!

originally posted by: Aazadan
a reply to: face23785

The private sector hasn't done any better on these metrics than the TSA has done. Believe it or not, they've actually done worse.

The private sector is only more efficient if you're working on a volume based monetization model. Under private sector logic, there's no reason to pay a second screener when you can eventually process everyone with just one. It's simply another expense.

Your analysis is flawed. There's not one business model that explains the entire private sector. You could try to make that "serve everyone with one worker" argument with almost any industry, but you'd be wrong. McDonald's could eventually serve everyone with one person too, but they'll lose money because people will get tired of waiting and go elsewhere. This example just adds a middle man. The customers aren't paying the security firm, but the people they are paying give the security firm the contract. If the airlines and airport are losing volume because you're taking too long to process passengers, you'll lose your contract. And all of this would be negotiated in the contract to begin with, they have years of data about how many agents they need to be efficient. If your company won't provide that, I guarantee they can find someone else who will.

a reply to: face23785

When it comes to airports you can't get tired of waiting and go elsewhere.

originally posted by: Aazadan
a reply to: face23785

When it comes to airports you can't get tired of waiting and go elsewhere.

Oh ok, I forgot airline volume never ever goes down, because people have no choice but to fly. Except it does, and they do. Certain segments of the airline customer base have no choice, they will continue to fly. But a lot of people have alternatives and they'll use it. It's happened before. After 9/11 volume dropped dramatically. People drove or took buses and trains, or they just didn't take trips unless they absolutely had to. During hard economic times airlines lose volume, because some people just can't afford to fly. The airlines have no guarantees. If they become overwhelmingly inhospitable to fliers, some people won't fly. The airlines will lose money. That's free market.

Ex employee talking:

This does not surprise me.

They fired too many "good" screeners. It was so bad they called back a bunch of terminated employees. I, among the few who took the "threat" seriously, did not get a call back. Only because I was not on the list of the most recent groups of people fired. I was not only fired from the TSA. I was terminated, or better put divorced, from the TSA.

I took the job seriously while everyone else around me absolutely despised me. Simply because I was strictly "by the book." I'm not afraid to say it anymore. You can ask Bobby White (female Caucasian 250 lbs, 5'9" blonde haired, or brown; dies her hair) just how by the book some of these good screeners were. I was one of them. I had several complaints by my fellow TSO's because I stuck to the SOP. Everyone hated working with me because I took the book by its literal sense.

Let me paint a picture for you of what I mean.

Through my training I shined above my 3 bulb nursed plants. I even impressed my farmers. I was sprouting roots faster than any other bulb. But when the time came to plant me in the field I was met with rot. It was not because of the soil. It was not because of the water. It was because the other plants in the field grew to be so lazy, they tried to move the water to a single area, and just let it pass on through without taking in anything, or filtering out anything. They just sat there rotting.

When the focus switched to me my stalks were the strongest. My roots filtered out the bad, and only allowed through the good. All of the plants that I was nestled with uprooted themselves and moved to where the others were rotting, so they could be comfortable rotting away with themselves.

This # doesn't surprise me at all. Even I missed a test. And I took it better than everyone else. That's right the plant with the toughest roots and the highest stalks took a hit and now carries a scar. The Federal Security Director commended me for my honesty when I missed my test. Why? Because I admitted to my mistake.

When I missed my test, all of the rotting plants around me wilted. Made themselves flat with just the look from the farmers. But when I was picked up, because I was the one who failed the hardest, I stood up to the farmer willingly showing everything I had. And when I explained where I went wrong, the head farmer turned to all of the lesser shovel hands and said "oh my god.... look at what you have left in these plants. This is the only plant who proves to me that he can survive."

Again this # doesn't surprise me. That's why I don't fly anymore. I take the bus.

But there is more behind the reason I was terminated. It was not because everyone hated me. Though I felt that the reason I was fired had everything to do with my peer's disrespect for me being "the knight in shinning armor." Shinning because I never let the blood stain my armor. It was for another reason completely un-related to all of the events that transpired while I was working there.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

I was traveling very light one time and I was searched head to toe by tsa, they even searched my ponytail! Another time I had visited my ailing parents and they loaded me up on tons and tons of family antiques, pocket watches, weird german military artifacts, old radios. Seriously, the watches were still ticking, I had it all in one rolling suitcase. It easily weighed over 100lbs. I kid you not when I say I have never gone through security so quickly. I couldn't believe it, and then I was terrified that if I went through, what else could have.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: shawmanfromny

I was traveling very light one time and I was searched head to toe by tsa, they even searched my ponytail! Another time I had visited my ailing parents and they loaded me up on tons and tons of family antiques, pocket watches, weird german military artifacts, old radios. Seriously, the watches were still ticking, I had it all in one rolling suitcase. It easily weighed over 100lbs. I kid you not when I say I have never gone through security so quickly. I couldn't believe it, and then I was terrified that if I went through, what else could have.

That's because it's done at random. They can't leave it up to the agents to decide who looks suspicious, because then they'd be accused of racism and all that junk. So they literally have to use standards like ok every 500 passengers, we're gonna search them. Even if it's a guy in pocketless shorts and a t-shirt with no bags or a 93 year old woman in a wheelchair. The military does the same thing with random access measures, they have a standard like every 50th car or something like that, whether it's Joe-Schmo or the base commander. Because there's so many Joe Schmos, of course you hear about them getting searched more, it's just statistics.

The solution is to say # political correctness and let the agents use their best judgement and search whoever they think looks suspicious.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: shawmanfromny

It just goes to show you privatization of government JUST doesn't work!!

Well it works really well if you and your company happen to be on the receiving end of the effort.

originally posted by: Salander

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: shawmanfromny

It just goes to show you privatization of government JUST doesn't work!!

Well it works really well if you and your company happen to be on the receiving end of the effort.

Exactly. Notice how they say the answer now is new biometric scanners; which most likely will not work any better.

It's all about the money.

originally posted by: waggz

originally posted by: Salander

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: shawmanfromny

It just goes to show you privatization of government JUST doesn't work!!

Well it works really well if you and your company happen to be on the receiving end of the effort.

Exactly. Notice how they say the answer now is new biometric scanners; which most likely will not work any better.

It's all about the money.

It's about the $ and about the control over people.

originally posted by: GiulXainx


But there is more behind the reason I was terminated. It was not because everyone hated me. Though I felt that the reason I was fired had everything to do with my peer's disrespect for me being "the knight in shinning armor." Shinning because I never let the blood stain my armor. It was for another reason completely un-related to all of the events that transpired while I was working there.

Yeah I worked for them for a few months and the morale here, and I am sure elsewhere is extremely low. I talked to a friend of mine who still works there and I asked who was all still around and she just said it would be easier to give me a name and I will let you know. I'm pretty sure up here there is at least a 70% turn over rate.

I was let go because my trainer was horrid and was still trying to train me on stuff that should have been first day stuff on my last day of training, and he was also apparently bad mouthing me to all the supervisors.