Word: tsa
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...hero," says Charles Slepian, head of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center. "He got us to pay attention to what many of us have known since 9/11--that security at airports is all smoke and mirrors." That may be overstating it, but even Admiral James Loy, the outgoing head of the TSA, admits that Heatwole's stunt "shows us we have much to learn...
...days before a college kid named Nathaniel Heatwole got busted for acting like a would-be terrorist, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) conducted a poll and claims it received good news: most folks believe the agency is doing a decent job. According to the poll, which has not yet been published, about 90% of respondents who had recently flown said security at airports was "somewhat better to much better" than it was before 9/11. It's easy to see why. The federal screeners scanning our bodies, bags and shoes are often infallibly polite, and in their starched white shirts...
...weeks before Loy's departure was announced, the GAO issued two critical reports, one of which said there are "significant weaknesses in the testing and training procedures for TSA airport screeners." The TSA collects too little information on screeners' performance and doesn't yet have a systematic way of training supervisors, the reports found. The inspector general of the DHS discovered that the screeners had been given test answers in order to maximize the pass rate. A classified section of one of the GAO reports suggests that weapons are still making their way past security. And this summer...
Congress is reviewing the TSA's hiring, monitoring and training of screeners, and the agency says it's making changes. A better training program is being put in place for both screeners and supervisors, and all screeners must now be recertified annually. The TSA says it met its self-imposed Sept. 29 deadline for finishing background checks on screeners, whose fingerprints are now on file with the FBI, and it told TIME that it had to let go of 4% of screeners because they did not pass muster...
...federal air-marshal program has also suffered growing pains. In its rush to get cops in the air, the TSA put hundreds of marshals aboard planes without waiting for them to receive final security approval. Initial training was criticized as quick and dirty. And some marshals seem confused about their role. According to an aviation source, a marshal recently searched an emptied plane during a layover, discovered some pot in a passenger's seat back, and demanded that a local police officer arrest the alleged offender. "Have you ever heard of illegal search and seizure?" the miffed cop asked, refusing...