A senior TSA “whistleblower” claims his agency has chosen expediency over keeping passengers safe. But is “safe” really about safety or more about optics?
Jay Brainard has been a TSA officer in Kansas for 17 years and has a history of filing complaints against his own agency. He recently sfiled a new round of complaints that speed is taking precedence over safety.
Per CNN, his claims include:
- Walkthrough metal detectors at all US airports have been switched to a reduced-sensitivity setting — below levels they were at in the years following 9/11 — which Brainard says could potentially enable bomb components, 3-D printed weapons and other suspicious items to pass through. Brainard says sensitivity levels have not been altered with the body scanners.
- The TSA has instructed officers to keep the X-ray conveyor belts moving in the expedited PreCheck lines, hampering their ability to zero in on questionable items in bags.
- The TSA before late 2017 failed to adequately screen TSA officers for colorblindness, which is a disqualifier for employment in the agency because officers need to be able to differentiate between colors to spot potential explosives when using the X-ray machines.
- Automated settings on X-ray machines on PreCheck conveyor belts for luggage that flag suspicious items for employees operating the machines have been turned off, removing a computerized tool to help them scan for threats.
- The TSA has ordered that officers allow some passengers with medical devices, such as casts or prosthetics, to do a self-pat down when they set off the alarm. The decision was made out of sensitivity to people with medical conditions. Although, they are allowed to do a self-pat down they will undergo an explosive detection test and have hand swab to check for evidence of explosives.
- The TSA allows unvetted non-PreCheck passengers into the PreCheck lanes in order to speed up the lines.
Security At Any Price Is Not A Price I Am Willing To Pay
Airport security, like so many things, is a tradeoff. Certainly we could strip search every passenger and ensure no contraband ever makes it onboard an aircraft. But time and civil liberties are great counterweights to the notion of security.
Politicians, airlines, and consumers demand not only the illusion of safety, but efficiency. When TSA wait times creeped way up earlier this year, the outcry echoed through the mountains…long wait times are simply not feasible.
And yet we are faced with this dilemma: the TSA’s undercover “Red Teams” detected a 95% failure rate in 2015 in finding illicit weapons or other contraband. If that statistic has any merit—and I don’t see any reason to think otherwise—then this whole TSA game we play every time we travel is a sham.
So all of Brainard’s criticisms, some of which are reasonable, some which may be a stretch, really don’t move the TSA from useful to useless, but more like useless to more useless. It’s like crying over spilled milk.
Thus, I’m not losing any sleep over this latest “whistleblower” report.
CONCLUSION
I view airport security and the TSA not as an actual provider of safety, but merely as a deterrent. More so, I view the TSA as phycological crutch that makes travelers feel safer, with all emphasis on feel. My position has not changed in the 10 years I have written this blog.
Sure, the TSA is speeding things up. I, for one, appreciate that clearing security rarely takes more than a few minutes. And as long as it just theatre anyway, I’m simply not all that concerned about the latest revelations. They merely demonstrate what we’ve long already known.
I have said before i will say it again. We spend too much money to save too few lives. The republicans are only ok with this because there is probably a corruption angle and Moscow mitch and his cronies are making money somehow.
Stop the security drama. Let hijackers hijack a place and kill a few hundred. Cost of doing business. We accepted this when the 737 max was rushed through but we lose our minds when it comes to terrorism. Not very logical.
I don’t see the logic of harassing the TSA-Pre passengers who have already been pre- screened. I enrolled in the TSA-Pre screening, and last year walked through the metal detector, which I did not set off. All of a sudden, after I walked through, the TSA screener told me that “I was selected to a secondary screening”. I asked him why, since I did not set off the metal detector? He told me that “it was a random screening”. Can someone please explain the misguided logic to this? I can see him patting me down, if I set off the metal detector. However, that was not the case; the TSA mentality is idiotic!
I recently brought a multimeter with 6ft cables through 3 different airports (DEN, PHX, and PDX) and nobody even took my bag off the X-ray machine for a secondary check. Can I assume TSA agents are smart enough to know its a common tool, or that they just aren’t looking?
TSA is and has always been a big joke. All they care is that you don’t bring your $0.15 bottle of water from home so you have to pay $4.75 for the same bottle at the airport.
“I view the TSA as phycological crutch that makes travelers feel safer”
What does algae have to do with TSA? Or did you mean “psychological”?
TSA needs to go. It’s turned into another government boondoggle and neither political party seems interested in fixing it. If anything, the TSA prevents good security from happening. With the exception of the color-blindness thing, I don’t see anything in the whistleblower’s compliant which actually hampers security.
Even with MMW and the TSA’s onerous rules, you can still bring more than enough items on an aircraft to take it down. BUT we don’t have terrorists dropping planes out of the sky daily/weekly/even yearly now. Why? Because the public won’t take s**t from anyone since 9/11. Between a public willing to fight and the reinforced cockpit door, the threat is neutralized. Let me bring my damn water & shampoo on the plane already.
@Debit: Obama had 8 years to do something about the TSA and instead the TSA doubled-down during his tenure, ripping out metal detectors for nudie-scopes for all.
I’m glad. TSA should be sped up. The government always does things backward. Instead of preventing dangerous groups from immigrating or coming over on student visas or tourist visas when they earn $200 a month, the government rather harass and abuse citizens and legitimate tourists at customs and with TSA. It’s very clear an 80 year old white Mormon woman or 25 year old Korean K-Pop looking guy isn’t going to be a threat but that is who they often stop with secondary screenings. There is a need for scanning luggage and metal detectors but the biggest deterrent against a bad situation is keeping the trouble makers out in the first place and people on a plane being watchful. It’s not the rich Jordanian or rich Emirati who are going to be the problem but a 30 year old making peanuts who has no business as a tourist ($$) with heritage from one of the countries that are known to breed these attacks.
@Debit
It was the Obama administration and Democrats that put in body scanners in airports. Bureaucracy and courts that don’t hold TSA accountable is why it is a disaster. There are many more republicans who are libertarian and are concerned with privacy and rights of citizens and tourists than there are democrats concerned with the above.
Regarding the news about the flooding and closing at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport, I can’t tell everyone how sorry I felt for the TSA and the Delta personnel at that airport. The Delta check in personnel, when I traveled there, were probably the rudest ever, even worse than NYC. Secondly, the idiotic TSA screener made us go through a machine which puffed air onto you. She didn’t tell us how long we would have to stay in there, and it was claustrophobic, to say the least. Then, she made us go through a regular screening machine. I later found out that the FAA banned the puffing machines, as they were notoriously inaccurate, and unreliable. In any event, thanks Ft. Lauderdale TSA, for torturing us, with your useless and crummy device! Incidentally, TSA stands for totally, stupid, a—s.
At Ben Gurion Airport, which has the best security in the world, they don’t employ the ridiculous tactics which the TSA employs. Essentially, all passengers have been screened before they ever get to the airport. In addition, all passengers must be checked again by security, prior to actually arriving at the terminal. Once inside, there is additional questioning. However, the random checks for shampoo, water, eye drops, etc. don’t exist. Also, passengers don’t have to remove their shoes and belts. The technology used by their screening machines, exceeds anything that I’ve seen here. Last, they don’t pat passengers down in public, as the TSA does.