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TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

washingtonpost.com

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Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#61

Post by a3n »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #50
delecti wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only one TSA officer has ever been killed on-duty, and they have a total of 57,000 employees as of 2016 [1]. Not all of them are inspection agents (maybe 1/3? I'll use 20,000), but they've been an agency since 9/11 (I'll use 17 years). That makes 1 death per 340,000 agent-years. Admittedly I don't know how their total employee number has changed over time, and my 1/3 estimate could be wildly off. Meanwhile the statis…

It's worth pondering that the overwhelming majority of police deaths are injuries when an inattentive driver runs over an officer during a traffic stop. Only a suicidal maniac would stand for an extended time on the drivers side of a stopped car on the highway. It would be a boon to public health if the police could just photograph a traffic offender and send him the ticket in the mail! The police unions would be dis…

I read recently, maybe here, that standing by the side of the road deaths for law enforcement is no longer the greatest cause of death.

Also, I'm a truck driver, on the road all day every day, and cops are mostly on the passenger side these days. Anecdata.

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#63

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

kingnothing wrote: post #21
maccio92 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think screening for bombs has any potential to be dangerous?

The TSA has never found a bomb.

I don't think that statement, by itself, tells us much about the TSA's efficacy. Because their mere presence could be an effective deterrent.

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#64

Post by edm0nd »

jmvoodoo wrote: post #9
kurczynski wrote: post #6

She said her fellow officers are “out there working, they’re putting their lives on the line. We took that oath when we got hired here, and we’re not even getting what we deserve.” All budgeting problems aside, how do TSA officers put their lives on the line?

Unlike most other forms of law enforcement, TSA agents lives are most at risk when off-duty and someone learns they are an agent in a social setting. As a result, the government shutdown is putting TSA lives in jeopardy.

They are at risk of getting laughed at.

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#65

Post by cordonbleu »

I think we are in a pants down situation, thus vulnerable. if any more opportune time exists for a sudden attack out of left field, i cant think of it right now, but we as a whole should be in a mindset of being responsible for the often unseen areas of responsibility, that good government usually addresses.

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#66

Post by dfischer »

TSA is one of the biggest jokes in government economic rigging. Anecdotally, they're even more grumpy than the DMV. Yeah I've heard the adage the DMV is supposed to be slow as a control theory.

Bottom line is the TSA doesn't provide the value it costs.

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#67

Post by pram »

TSA is a case where the government nationalized a thing (airport security) that was sufficiently handled by the private sector.

A centralized regulating agency for transportation security makes sense, but heres what I don't get: what was the argument for also creating/hiring a literal army of guards to replace the private force that existed before? It seems unprecedented considering everything else in the post-Reagan political ideology.

It was a massive and invasive expansion of Federal policing power, and it seemingly comes under no real scrutiny or opposition (beyond everyone completely hating it)

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#68

Post by InitialLastName »

excalibur wrote: post #29

> “The American people need to know that their air travel remains safe,” Markey wrote. I think the American people have been lied to enough.

Air travel is probably safer with the TSA in full operation, but only because there is a lower proportion of angry and tired people who have been waiting in line for 4 hours around.

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#69

Post by lostcolony »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #63
kingnothing wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The TSA has never found a bomb.

I don't think that statement, by itself, tells us much about the TSA's efficacy. Because their mere presence could be an effective deterrent.

We know at least two made it through. Underwear bomber, shoe bomber.

We also know pre-9/11 how common it was (non-existent).

We also know that they consistently fail audits. Though they've gotten better! Most recently they only failed ~75% of the time at detecting things auditors were trying to smuggle in, instead of the prior 95%!

So, yeah, by itself it doesn't. But we have enough data to make a pretty solid eval.

Re: TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home

#70

Post by petercooper »

kurczynski wrote: post #6

She said her fellow officers are “out there working, they’re putting their lives on the line. We took that oath when we got hired here, and we’re not even getting what we deserve.” All budgeting problems aside, how do TSA officers put their lives on the line?

It's a common turn of phrase used by people who are working "for their country" in security related jobs.

People in the police, army, and similar forces (whether TSA officers are considered as such is a political point) are often spoken about in similar terms regardless of how dangerous their jobs actually are (e.g. an Army chef based in the US may be revered just as much for putting their 'life on the line' as someone running into Helmand because it's about their service to the country rather than the absolute risk).

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