Do you think the TSA doing a better job than the private companies before 9/11? Do you think they can prevent another 9/11?

Not with my experience. I flew with a can of mace in my carry on bags on 2 domestic and 1 international flight.

I also used my brothers ticked to fly from JFK-ATL last summer. (He used mine as well) So it seems they aren't catching everything.

I think they are doing a great job...We haven't had a post 9-11

"If it's not broke why fix it" or something like that.

Michael

Is that already dropped with their gate search at the airport and everyone need to get with their boarding pass at the checkpoint.

I think they do a pretty darn good job. With the number of people they encounter during a work shift, the attitudes, the relatively poor pay and supervision... hey, they got my respect.

Yes, it is doing very good job with TSA at the checkpoint and I think already make dropped with these gate search and remember with everyone of those boarding pass & I.D go through at the checkpoint.

At first I thought the TSA was doing better. I thought they were much more thorough and professional than the private screeners. But lately I have noticed a trend where the TSA screeners are falling into the same rut that the private screeners had been in for years. I see in many TSA workers the same disinterested stare that the private screeners had. I've watched many times as a TSA Xray operator looks away from his display long enough for a bag to appear and then disappear from the screen without their seeing it.

Let's face it the job is monotonous and boring. After doing it for a while I think it would be tough for anybody to keep up a great work ethic.

I don't think pay has anything to do with it either. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but TSA screeners make roughly twice what the private screeners they replaced made. Unfortunately if you aren't really interested in your job, the amount of money you make has little affect on your job performance. It's probably a rare person who dreams of having a job wanding shoeless passengers with BO, or repeating every 20 seconds "Please remove your laptops from their cases and put them in a separate tray on the belt." only to have someone every few minutes not comply.

As far as preventing another 9/11. I think a better question is without the benefit of hindsight, what would TSA screeners have done any differently on 9/11? The weapons that were used were all allowed on commercial aircraft under the FAA rules at the time. Maybe I'm living under a rock, but I don't remember any fault being assigned to the screeners who handled the terrorists.

TSA's takeover of the screening positions at US airports was an attempt to pacify a nervous traveling public. At great cost it provided them with a false sense of added security. Any real enhancements to security as a result of 9/11 have been realized through rule changes ie. no knives or blades of any kind allowed in checked baggage, sterile cockpits, only ticketed pax in gate areas, 100% screened checked baggage, etc..

While we're on the subject does anybody have a link to data comparing TSA screeners effectiveness in catching banned items to that of private screeners?

Dl757md

I am a little biased because my dad works for the TSA here in LIT. I have noticed the attitudes of the TSA employees here go way down in the past months for a few reasons.
The first reason is the hours. Instead of hiring any more screeners (they are already understaffed as it is) they make them work a 12 hour day to cover the positions and gaps left by the TSA employees who have quit. I used to gripe about lifting a few heavy bags for a flight or two but these guys (and gals) have to lift all these bags for 12 hours.

I think another reason is the pay. These folks are not the highest paid government employees in the world but I believe the job they are doing for the security of this country should at least bring a liitle bit more to their bank accounts!

Just my opinion,
GulfstreamGuy