Transportation Security Administration

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TSA emblem

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is a U.S. government agency that was created as part of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 19, 2001. The TSA was originally organized in the U.S. Department of Transportation but was moved to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 01, 2003. The agency has been the subject of a number of controversies.

1 Organization
2 Circumstances of creation and purpose
3 Criticisms
- 3.1 Covert security tests
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Organization

The TSA is a component of the Department of Homeland Security and is responsible for security of the nation's transportation systems. With state, local and regional partners, the TSA oversees security for highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems, ports, and 450 U.S. airports. As of March 2007, the TSA employs around 43,000 transportation security officers (down from a high of nearly 60,000 in 2003), commonly referred to as "screeners."^[1]

TSA Org Chart

Edmund "Kip" Hawley - Assistant Secretary/Administrator of TSA
Robert Jamison - Deputy Assistant Secretary/Deputy Administrator of TSA
- Gale Rossides - Associate Administrator, Business Transformation & Culture
- Dana A. Brown - Assistant Administrator, Law Enforcement/Director, Federal Air Marshal Service
- Morris (Mo) McGowan - Assistant Administrator, Security Operations

[edit] Circumstances of creation and purpose

The agency was created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. Before its creation, security checkpoints were operated by private companies which had contracts with either:

an airline (in cases where the terminal was owned by an airline)
a terminal company (in cases where the terminal was privately owned)
an airport operator (in cases where the terminal was operated by a government agency).

With the arrival of the TSA, private checkpoints have not disappeared altogether. Under the TSA's Screening Partnership Program (SPP), privately operated checkpoints exist in the airports of San Francisco, CA; Kansas City, MO; Rochester, NY; Tupelo, MS; Sioux Falls, SD; and Jackson Hole, WY; and at the East 34th St Heliport in New York, NY.^[2] ^[3] Private security firms have been approved by the TSA to provide security, but the TSA still claims a right to authority over the private security firms.^[4]

The organization was charged with developing policies to ensure the security of U.S. air traffic and other forms of transportation. The TSA says airport security and the prevention of aircraft hijacking are two of its main goals, though it is widely disputed whether the TSA aids in accomplishing these goals and whether the TSA is necessary for their accomplishment.

The TSA oversaw the Federal Air Marshal Service until December 1, 2003 when the program was officially transferred to the authority of the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the U.S. government's 2006 fiscal year, the Federal Air Marshal Program was transferred back to the TSA. The TSA also currently oversees the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, also known as the "armed pilots".

[edit] Criticisms

There have been numerous criticisms leveled at the TSA, usually concerning its airport security operations. The criticisms include:

Complaints of invasion of privacy
"Show" security that fails to actually protect.
Frequent theft of airline passenger possessions by TSA employees^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]
Lavish spending by TSA officials on events unrelated to airport security^[11]
Sales of items collected from passengers^[12]
Suppression of speech^[13]
TSA employees skipping security checks^[14]^[15]
Wasteful spending in its hiring practices^[1]

[edit] Covert security tests

Undercover operations to test the effectiveness of the airport screening processes are routinely carried out by the TSA's internal affairs unit and the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's office.

A report by the Inspector General found that TSA officials had collaborated with the private security firm at San Francisco International Airport to alert screeners of undercover tests. From August 2003 until May 2004 precise description of the undercover personnel were provided to the screeners; the handing out of descriptions was then stopped but until January 2005 screeners were still alerted whenever undercover operations were going on.^[16]

A report on undercover operations conducted in October 2006 at Newark Liberty International Airport was leaked to the press. The screeners had failed 20 of 22 undercover security tests, missing numerous guns and bombs. The Government Accountability Office had previously pointed to repeated covert test failures by TSA personnel.^[17]^[18] Revealing covert test results is against TSA policy, and the agency responded by initiating an internal probe to discover the source of the leak.^[19]