The unspoken reason the TSA is so terrible

[KamaAina]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-tsa-airport-security-terrible-20160518-story.html

So I tend to place more credence on the second explanation: The TSA has slowed down screening after last summer's humiliating failure to detect almost any of the contraband in a security audit. Even though I was in TSA Precheck, which had a blessedly short line, I spent more than 20 minutes waiting to get through. There was a confused fellow who must have gone through the metal detector half a dozen times before he finally realized he needed to shuck his belt, and two passengers who seemed to speak almost no English. Then, with the line still backing up, the TSA person made the woman ahead of me stop and go back through because she had jokingly danced back and forward. And made me go through again because ... I walked through with my hands in my pockets, having jammed them there while I stood around watching the show.

I've struggled to figure out how moving backward and then forward at walking speed, could defeat a metal detector. Either the magnetic circuit detects metal or it doesn't. The TSA agents didn't seem to know either; they just threatened the woman that she could be kept off her flight for playing around. Apparently, issuing absurd threats to American citizens over harmless behavior is something that requires a complement of two TSA officers. No wonder they're understaffed.

But this is the essential logic of bureaucracy. The TSA will suffer terribly if a terrorist slips through with a bomb — or even if the auditors make it through with a fake bomb. On the other hand, what happens to them if there are long lines? Not much. They've got to be there for eight hours, so why should they care if we are too? This is why government agencies tend to be much more attuned to remote risks than the real and persistent costs they impose on the rest of us.

This is also the essential problem of American security theater. Thorough screening is very expensive and time-consuming, particularly because most of our airports weren't built for this level of screening. At Reagan, my preferred airport, there's pretty much nowhere to put another security line.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

1. NO to privatization. NO NO NO

[leftynyc]

2. I've read another real

problem is the checked bag fees. Nobody wants to pay them so they try and bring all their luggage on board - that's slowing down the lines in a huge way. Add that to this article's argument - that they're afraid of screwing up - and this is what you get - lines that take 2 hours to get through (at the bigger airports).

[GOLGO 13]

3. They want Israeli-strength level of security? Then pay for it.

Hire more workers, more equipment & give them incentives them to catch things. The Israeli's have this down to a science but they don't want to pay for it.

I haven't flown in 3 years & will avoid it as long as I can.