With the Choice of Dropping TSA will Airports Make the Switch?
I hate TSA.
I know that I am not alone in that sentiment. I think it is one of the biggest wastes of money in the federal government. The quality of the product borders on ridiculous. There are the well documented cases of not being allowed to take a cupcake through because it has too much “gel” in the form of frosting, and the obvious removal of shoes, jackets, and who knows what else in the future. Of course there is also all of the uproar over full body scanners that can easily be seen as an invasion of privacy.
Beyond the well documented accounts, we all have experiences of forgetting a knife or some other weapon in our bag that gets completely missed. I even had one friend who had forgotten two knives, but only one was found by the screeners.
An article in the New York Times made me aware of something that many people may not realize: since TSA was created in 2001 airports have been allowed to request permission to replace federal screeners. To this point only 16 airports have been given permission to make the switch, but others are beginning to consider the option despite TSA saying they will no longer accept applications last year.
In response to that decision by TSA, Representative John L. Mica, Republican of Florida, included a provision in aviation legislation that strengthens the ability of airports to switch to private screeners which passed in February. Mica represents the district that includes the Orlando Sanford Airport that is anxiously trying to switch to private screeners.
According to the above mentioned article, the committee that supported the provision estimated that if the 35 biggest airports in the country switched to private screeners, the government would save $1 billion over five years. I wouldn’t be surprised if those numbers were inflated to prove their point, but everyone agrees that private screeners are cheaper than TSA.
In an economy, and aviation industry, where every dollar counts, how can this not become a more viable option for the nation’s airports? The answer is TSA being unwilling to give up their monopoly. If they are forced to compete against private companies that have to operate efficiently, they will have to change the way they operate. They will no longer be able to waste millions of dollars on useless purchases like changing the color of shirt their employees wear, and that is awesome.
If this provision does nothing more than force TSA to operate more efficiently and effectively, then it is one of the best bills I have heard about in recent memory. Here’s hoping that airports are actually able to have the screeners they want to have without any unnecessary hoops to jump through from the government, but what are the odds of that happening?
What is your take on the value of TSA over private screeners?
I think just the fact that there would be multiple companies handling the screening would be a benefit to security. One challenge with TSA screening is that it’s so uniform that it’s easy for someone who wants to bypass the screening to see how to do it. There would be some pain for those flying since one airport might require one thing and another a different thing (or is that legislated as well?), but if it will save the government money, I’m all for it.
Do we really feel safer because of what TSA is doing? Maybe a little, but not a whole lot. Reminds me of the phrase, locks keep honest people honest. Same with TSA.
The variety of screeners would probably have some impact, but TSA would still regulate the standards of screening, so the impact in that sense may be minimal. Even TSA admits it is cheaper to have private screeners. They just overvalue their presence. For some reason they think that they provide a service worthy of the cost, but the numbers just don’t add up. San Francisco is the only major airport to have switched to private screening, but I wonder if others will follow suit now that the new bill makes it easier. The one thing with that is that airports don’t have to do much in terms of TSA, but if they go private there would likely need to be more oversight, and if nothing else just the process of hiring a screening company.
I don’t feel any safer with TSA than I ever did. I don’t think most people do. But, I do feel much more inconvenienced, annoyed, and delayed when I am late for a flight. Like you said, if someone wants to get through bad enough they will find a way no matter what precautions we have set up.