Real police upset over TSA's pretend-police costumes
The TSA is dressing its agents in make-believe police outfits, and real police officers don't like it, according to USA Today.
Link (Thanks Dafoink!)The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is starting to equip its 48,000 screeners with 3-inch-by-2-inch, silver-colored, copper and zinc badges that will be worn on new royal-blue police-style shirts.
The attire aims to convey an image of authority to passengers, who have harassed, pushed and in a few instances punched screeners. "Some of our officers aren't respected," TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said.
Actual airport police, who carry guns and have arrest powers, worry that their own authority will be undercut by screeners who look like police. Every major airport has its own police department or is patrolled by local police.
"A lot of cops at airports are not real thrilled about it," said Duane McGray of the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, an airport police association. "It's another way of saying (to airport police), 'You're not important.'"
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Great. Just one more thing to make these self-important idiots even more head-swollen. It is bad enough to be subjected to security theater that is COMPLETELY and UTTERLY useless. Even worse that we're expected to respect the half-wits who think that making us take off our shoes will protect air-travel in the US.
Most of these folks are nice, but profoundly uneducated on the real facts of "air safety." Heck, they can't even agree to abide by the TSA's own guidelines. Next they'll want guns.
Self inflicted injury there Ellen.
The TSA is a fucking joke. I was at an event over the weekend and the Vice President was speaking. As a result the security was pretty tight getting in there. Still, even though they only had 2 metal detectors and no X-ray machines, they managed to screen over 2500 people with no appreciable slowdown or impact to the flow of traffic into the event. Keep in mind they still went through everyone's bags, made sure cell phones and laptops were working and not bombs, everyone had to turn out their pockets, etc... and the screeners were professional and friendly and everyone had a great attitude about everything.
You could say "Oh well that's the secret service screening people, of course they'd be pretty efficient at it." but the TSA screens thousands of people every day, millions every week. If they aren't professionals at screening people efficiently, then who is?
Maybe, the TSA "officers" are getting pushed, punched, and intimidated because they're impeding everyone's progress, power tripping all over the place, making people miss flights and then not taking any responsibility for it, and generally acting like douchebags. They're fucking up the airline industry at the same time as gas prices are rising and everything else. If I were trying to get to my flight, I'd be frustrated too, especially now that I know how smoothly things can go when everyone's doing their jobs right. At any rate I doubt it has anything to do with the uniform, and if anything, they'll be taken less seriously now because of it. That thing (if the pic is accurate) looks fake as hell, like a kids halloween costume. I wouldn't take it seriously.
I can walk onto an airplane with enough explosives to down a jetliner. Piece of cake...no problem. It is even easier to carry those same explosives into the huge mass of congestion caused by these sky-tards and just take out the security line. At some airports, like LAX you would create 3-4 times the casualties.
Now, try to get a bottle of water on board though? They'll stop you cold. Security theater run by untrained goons. Heck, LAX seems manned by young kids who appear to have dropped out of high school. Their vacant stares while going through the motions are REALLY confidence inspiring.
What a joke. Now they get badges? Great. The reason that nobody respects them is because they aren't WORTHY of respect. Most often they act like jack-booted thugs, drunk on their imagined authority while violating the policies that the TSA has put into place.
I have a better idea, spend the money on training the TSA screeners how to treat people like human beings. Teach them common sense and basic human decency. Giving them a police like uniform will only make them act like bad rent a cops. Oh and Ellen, most of your screeners aren't respected and the new uniforms will make them loose respect from the people that can help them the most, REAL police officers. I have the utmost respect for Police Officers, I do not have any respect for screeners that bully and harass law abiding citizens. A uniform will never change that.
I guess the ceremonial daggers are next/
I think she misspoke. "Some" should be "None" It's an easy mistake, and I wouldn't expect someone working minimum wage (even as a director) would know the difference
At an airport I was in recently, the critters that try to get you to sign up for credit cards (for "free tickets" and all that crap) were wearing shirts and pants almost the exact same colors as the security uniforms. The would even try to get your attention with "EXCUSE ME, SIR, COULD YOU PLEASE STEP OVER HERE"
"Real" security should have tossed them out on their collective ass.
OMG that uniform screams fakin bacon. Royal blue with gray pants and blue PIPING! That is a strip mall security guard uniform. Most of them will probably be 4 sizes to big, or too small, which will just add to the humiliation. Poor TSA employees.
Isn't it possible that TSA employees could be arrested for impersonating a police officer unless they make it clear that their badge, etc., is just pretend? I mean, if you rent a cop uniform for Halloween, the badge HAS to look fake or you could wind up in the pokey for impersonation (or so I am led to believe).
I wonder if you couldn't initiate a case of impersonating a police officer by simply talking with a TSA screener who's in uniform and making it clear that you believe they're a cop. The moment they start to play along, they're impersonating an officer, no?
Bigbadjon - you and others being bigoted enough to assume things like that are WHY they aren't respected. Father figure issues? Has anyone in a position like that actually treated you unfairly? I have never been treated like anything but a decent human being by TSA screeners, and so I treat them the same. In fact, I've watched them be very patient with individuals that were being jerks, not listening to directions, and holding up the line.
Grow up and stop thinking you have the right to consider all authority figures "pigs".
As for common sense about things like bottles and such? They do have it. I've had them just kind of shrug and shake their heads about having to tell people to throw (sometimes expensive) stuff out. They know it's stupid, but the person telling you to do it didn't make that rule.
Meh. I would actually respect the TSA officials more if they were forced to wear Justice League costumes.
@11
As in "Only following Orders"
passenger badges. Nice shiny shields with eagles and stars and stuff (in real metal!) that say "Official Airline Passenger"
@Frank In Virginia
Godwin! Godwin!
Heh, they remind me of Cartmans uniform. You will respect my authoritah!
Fair enough MLennox.
I though the reference was valid but, how about William Laws Calley, Jr.?
The TSA will also a special force of Airport Ninjas who will wear a black leotards and carry the latest armaments.
May I suggest that the TSA adopt as its service anthem "Up In The Air, Junior Birdmen"...
... When you hear the doorbell ringing
And you see the badge of tin
Then you'll know the Junior Birdmen
Have sent their boxtops in ...
I suspect that, by WeightedCompanionCube's standards, I have been treated quite decently by the TSA. They speak to me in respectful tones, frequently call me "sir" and phrase every order as a request. Some of them even kid around and act friendly.
But, still, despite all that: They make go through a complicated process when all I want to do is walk to the gate and relax before my flight, bothering no one and staying out of people's way. Instead, I have to empty my pockets into a pocket of my briefcase, take off my shoes, take out my laptop, put my carry-on bag and briefcase on the conveyer belt, take off my jacket and put it on the conveyer belt, and then push the three trays and my luggage through the X-ray machine, all the time keeping an eye on my things so they don't get stolen.
I almost always set off the metal-detector, so then I have to get groped by a stranger, while standing in an undignified position with my arms outstretched like an idiot, on public display.
That treatment is inherently indecent, even if the guy who's doing it to you says "sir."
WeightedCompanionCube said complainers like me should "grow up." I am a grownup, and law-abiding grownups of good moral character should not put up with this kind of treatment. Like John Wayne said: "I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." It's a good code to live by. Would the Duke have put up with this kind of nonsense?
If TSA screenings made us safer, we could discuss whether it's necessary, but it doesn't. As Bruce Schneier has demonstrated time and again: It's not security, it's security theater. It does not make us safer. Water is not a threat. Shampoo is not a threat.
I have sympathy for the front-line workers at the TSA. When I look in their eyes, I see the same look that's been in the eyes of friends of mine who've worked for telemarketing and collection agencies. They know what they're doing is stupid, it demeans them and the people they interact with, but they need the money.
how far is it from telemarketer's eye to guard-who-loaded-the-Dachau-trains eye? One step? Two? Three removes?
There are a WHOLE LOT of things I won't do for money.
If TSA employees were not rude and stupid, they may get respect. Most employees of TSA a cross between Hitler's Youth and retarded monkeys. It is the best description I can think of. They are rude drones who cannot make simple common sense decisions, yet they have the power to grab your balls and ban you from travel. Some think they are cops, others God. I am pretty sure that some at Cleveland Hopkins are people I arrested years ago for drug possession charges. I did overhear some of them on break talking about "smoking weed" when we get paid. Just what we need, overpriced, overbearing, lazy, stoned security guards. The word "Officer" is only for professionals which clearly, they are not.
They could not pick out a terrorist if Bin Laden himself was announced who he was and gave them an I.D.
whoa, you busted people for weed and you're calling them fascists?
On a more irresponsible note: The Methane Protest; have a can of beans before flying. They can grab your crotch put they still need at least one hand to hold their nose.
TSA does blood tests on people at random and folks actually lose their jobs. Once in a rare while they'll actually police themselves and TSA people that swipe stuff will get fired. Many people leave tip money in their golf bags that doesn't make it through the airport.
It's tough work for not much money. They have a huge turnover rate. People get injured, poked, stabbed, covered with filth handling baggage, but as the TSA saying goes, "At least bags don't talk back".
A lot of TSA are ex-military so they have a weird take on life, and TSA admin says they're a "para-military organization".
I took a job with TSA because of reading about it on boingboing. It just seemed like such a dumb spot to work and I like working jobs once in a while that make me laugh because I'm an idiot that way. Basically, I wanted to see how it worked. Not for anything nefarious, I'm just curious that way.
I've seen both sides. Getting up at 3am to get to work on Christmas and pawing through a suitcase of bloody xmas panties. People getting fired for smoking weed or having a small BAC.
I've got a ton of stories. I should write an article but I travel a lot and don't want to deal with any repercussions. And I learned from working there, that there are people who will go out of their way to make it hard for me to fly.
I have a longtime boingboing account, but I'm commenting as an Anonymous Coward.
I guess the cops can join the travelers in feeling insignificant, huh?
What are the Penalties for Impersonating a Police Officer?
Depending on state law, impersonating a police officer may be considered either a felony or a misdemeanor. Punishments for impersonating a police officer include:
Source: Legal Match (via Google)
did you just spamlink AGAIN redfoxone? BAN!
No Mitch, I didn't say complainers like you should grow up. If you want to complain about the screening procedures, cool.
If you want to somehow make the leap that said procedures are somehow the fault of every screener trying to make a living, and that they are on the level of Nazi war criminals, then grow up.
I'm willing to bet someone who judges people's worth based on their occupation is going to have some pretty strong opinions towards certain races, genders, and religions as well. Bigotry is bigotry.
Frank - please tell me how someone who tells you to throw away your drink is a war criminal? Please? Sometimes people "follow orders." It's called doing your job, and unless it involves killing people, I don't think war crimes apply.
at what point does someone cross the line from struggling wage slave to active participant in the murder of freedom and democracy?
Cube,
Target aside, telling someone to grow up is one of the Five Principal Examples of Unintentional Irony.
I should write an article but I travel a lot and don't want to deal with any repercussions. And I learned from working there, that there are people who will go out of their way to make it hard for me to fly. I have a longtime boingboing account, but I'm commenting as an Anonymous Coward.
That's why anonymous comments are allowed.
RedFoxOne,
You're on a time-out for repeated linkspamming. You can apply to Teresa for reinstatement if you so desire.
WeightedCompanionCube - The people who work as TSA screeners are contributing to the system. As I said, I have sympathy for them - but in the end, they've chosen what to do and nobody coerced them.
And of course I judge people by what their jobs are. If someone works for a tobacco company, for example, I'm going to think they're out there peddling death and think less of them for it.
I don't claim my own employers are pure, but I'm not going to try to escape personal responsibility for my choices by claiming I was forced to work for them because I was somehow coerced to do so by the money.
(Note that I don't know about anything immoral my employers are doing -- quite the contrary, I've worked there for almost 20 years and they've been a pretty good company throughout that time. But they're a multi-billion-dollar multinational and there may well be corners of the business that I'm aware of.)
Due to some extremely odd urban planning, I drive through the airport to get to the yoga studio. I see the TSA people crossing the street to get to work. However heinous the TSA might be, most of them are just people who need jobs. There's no industry here. The three traditional areas of employment in a resort are realtor, waiter and hooker. Realtor's out of the mix now due to the economy, people aren't eating out much and most of the TSAers don't look like they'd make much turning tricks. Even Lenin knew that it was better to get the Tsarist soldiers to come over to his side. Vilifying a whole class of workers is unproductive.
Anytime i see someone with three or four stripes on their epaulets in an airport I figure they should be able to fly a plane. Seriously , is everyone at the the TSA a captain or better?
As for the badge, NYC sanitation workers get those( and earn them! )
$cientology uniforms? TSA uniforms?
http://www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/7a-1200.jpg
You are absolutely correct WeightedCompanionCube. These children whiners about the TSA seem to have no ability to separate government policies and procedures from the individuals. From what I have experienced and observed, treat them nice and they treat you nice. Sure there are exceptions, but that is a small minority. And while I think the Bush administration is the worse administration in American history, the idea that TSA and DHS is fascist is once again children spouting of nonsense. They have no clue what the word even means. Fly to Israel an you will see hard core security and no one calls them fascists. In European airports there were bad ass dudes with machine guns before 9/11. Personally I believe most DHS procedures around air traffic don't make us much safer, but these children need to get a grip. In fact I don't think any defensive reaction will be near as effective as eliminating the problem and if Bin Laden had been taken out, life would be much better. That right there is the reason this is a failed administration.
Given the general criticism of TSA people, I just wanted to toss in that the Portland, OR airport has the most polite, helpful, and considerate airport screening staff I've ever seen. There are enough jerks out there that the cheerful and professional staff deserve a call-out.
I guess it's part of this wacky good government, "servants of the people" idea those Oregon people seem to have. Crazy stuff.
for anyone who has traveled overseas and not had to take off their shoes or disrobe, or pull out their computer...you have to wonder...is European technology better than ours at the security level, or are they just plain smarter overall.
When I really want to piss off a TSA agent, I say to them, " why do I have to take off my shoes again?" and of course they say....'don't you remember the shoe bomber?" and I say..." so if the shoe bomber had swallowed a condom full of C4 and brought that plane down, you would be sticking your finger up my ass right now....correct Mr. TSA officer? Man do they get pissed....it is a lovely thing. these TSA personnel deserve zero respect.
"Fly to Israel an you will see hard core security and no one calls them fascists"
hee hee! Mikey silly!
Mikelotus,
What could possible make you think that calling people 'whiners' or 'children' would win anyone to your argument?
Most of the threats to Israeli security are not as imaginary as those the TSA protects us from.
Are you arguing that the response should be in proportion to the threat? That's just crazy talk.
@FRank in Virginia
Should have added a smiley to my other post, although I'm not at all sure what War Criminals has to do with the TSA! :)
Back in the day we had plenty of security theatre in Ireland - Gardai (that's the police) checking your baggage for suspicious devices and 'wanding' your bag for explosives and you for metal devices before getting a quick frisk, arms out, legs apart. They would also do random searches and any mention of threatening language - elliptically mentioning explosives or terrorism - was said to get you extra thorough searches!
We also often saw the special branch with automatic weapons on more than one occassion. We eventually sorted our terrorism out just in time for 9/11 to feck it all up for us again :)
How is this any different then what tens of thousands of rent a cop agencies do?
@WeightedCompanionCube
I wasn't saying TSA = War Criminal. My link was to the Nuremberg Defense, not to the defendants. I come from an age where I always question authority and my education and experience allows me freedom of movement to jobs where I can. You are, of course, correct in that these are people in a job and, to keep that job, they have to follow the instructions given them. That being the case a TSA screener has a set of either rules or guidelines to follow under the misguided umbrella of "keeping us safe". Where I lost respect for them is that if they are doing something they know is wrong (your quote) why legitimize it by saying it is someone else's rules. That is the Nuremberg Defense.
No one will take someone in that uniform seriously. Not least because the patch on the arm says "Team Spirit - Innovation - Integrity." They've got to be kidding... team spirit? Seriously? =/
An ape in uniform is still an ape.
If you're the police, where are your badges?
Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any steenkin' badges!
I'm sorry, but there is no defense for the TSA. They could be the nicest people on the planet (maybe some are, but many are not -- I've watched them yell at polite adults like they were two year olds), but the 'job' they are doing is simply another step toward getting the Sheeple in this here great country of 'Merika to accept the 'authority' of a police state.
And for the 'It can't happen here' crowd, please go away.
Wire tapping, Airport searches, random searches on the metro, random traffic stops... THIS is a free society?
Ah, America, America ... the land where I grew up.
"...That's a funeral in the mirror
and it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
ah wasn't it a strange way down?"
~~ L. C.
Much more interesting to me than the police-style badges are TSA's shirt-front name plates.
They are imprinted with the screener's first name and a 5-digit "surname," e.g. Chris 23415.
I guess that these were introduced to protect the personal information of the people who search our personal possessions (and persons).
I also guess that someone thought by using first names with the numbers ("Chris 23415," "Joe 77443," "Susan 21278," etc.) this scheme would seem less impersonal. But it struck me as something straight out of Huxley or Orwell.
Is there nobody in TSA smart enough to imagine what would happen if anyone, regardless of how they are armed, were to attempt to hijack an airplane filled with ordinary folks? Evidently not, but I'm pretty sure everyone from nuns to ninety-year old ladies, knowing that they are doomed would rush to save themselves by converging on the would be hijacker and literally rip them to bits with their bare hands.
Might make a nice movie.
Doug L - Traditionally, planes were hijacked and held for ransom. In that situation, interfering is a very good way to get everyone killed.
If the passengers know the plane is going to be used as a weapon, trying to regain control from the hijackers is worthwhile, unless they learn about it too late. 9/11 was a case of that: By the time the passengers knew, the hijackers already had a suicide pilot locked in the cockpit.
The most effective step taken against hijacking post-9/11: keeping the cockpit door locked from the inside between takeoff and landing. That, and the increased presence of air marshals.
The likelihood of seeing another hijacking is slim. The TSA is more concerned with planes being blown up.
Doug L., I believe that's more or less what happened with United 93 on 9/11. They heard through cell phones what happened to the previous flights.
Wasn't "just doing my job" the same excuse used by the people who nailed Jesus to the cross?
If I dressed up as a cop and tried to strip search a total stranger, I would get arrested.
Would I be arrested for wearing a TSA uniform?
Where is the dividing line between real cops and impersonators?
Impersonating a police officer can carry a felony conviction in some states, misdemeanor in others. Maybe it's time the police union take legal action.
Public confusion ultimately carries a heavy price.
I like the Huxley reference for the names. Good sound delta names.
Wasn't "just doing my job" the same excuse used by the people who nailed Jesus to the cross?
Ooh! Were you there? Pics or it didn't happen.
The numbers after a TSA employees name aren't to protect TSA employees' personal information. It's the digit needed to re-order replacement uniforms and add-onms (heavier jackets, short sleeved shirts, hats, that sort of thing).
The pictures on the linked Web site are prime for captioning. Here is mine for photo number 5 of 5:
"OK sir which one of these shall I use for your cavity search?"
Arrest the entire TSA for impersonating a police officer.
My, my.
Such overwhelming hatred and scathing remarks against a group of security workers that have to come to work every day and put up with people like the ones I see here.
I really feel sorry for the TSA workforce.
So, let's see here. Bad attitudes.
I have read over numerous forums relating to air travel. Specifically the 'travelling public' vs. 'the airport Nazis'. A lot of what I have read makes me laugh.
"I was treated rudely and with disrespect and made to feel indecent!"
Well, let's see. You purposefully seek out trouble by willfully antagonizing a TSA Officer just to be an ass. Yes. That is entirely different from what many of you accuse the TSA of doing. Brilliant plan.
"I could outsmart any of those dumb Nazi apes-in-uniform anyday of the week!"
This line of thought is just ingenious. It reminds me of the line: "My mental facilities are twice what yours are you pea-brain!"
"Real police only stop those who are doing crimes."
Well, when terrorists start robbing airport shops and speed faster than so-called 'normal people' maybe TSA can just focus on them.
"TSA Officers are impersonating police."
Yes. Let's arrest them. Then we can stretch our already critically expanded law enforcement agencies further by having them do airport security, mall security, Rite-Aid security, Housing and Hotel security, subway security, train security, military base and government installion security. Yes, good idea. Then you can whine about how the local fuzz grabbed your balls instead of the TSA.
"They made me throw out my $97 and half dollar bottle of lotion!"
Wow, really? Too bad. You were the one that brought it to the airport and didn't check it. All the announcements that TSA has made over the television, newspapers, radio and the internet about what to do and what you can and cannot bring is all for nothing. You can lead a horse to water but you, apparently, can't make him drink.
More often than not, I blame the airline for any issues like having to wait. Scheduling three or four flights at the same time. Cancelling flights and then rebooking all at once.
Then you get people who are not even remotely prepared to travel. Or you get some person who, like many of the people here, just wants to 'get his point across' and cause a scene or act like an idiot just to get back at the TSA.
Yes, very intelligent. Bravo.
Hi ThereRThings,
I'm the one who worked for TSA who commented above. I've watched plenty of TSA employees go after people for no reason other than they're having a crappy day at work or they didn't like the sports team shirt/hat the customer was wearing and they laugh about it after the customer has left.
There are plenty of people who show up being jerks about getting searched who are treated well. The Dept of Homeland Security is in a bit over their head, but they know that and they're trying to improve. Still it's a crappy job and it's security theater.
I'm not saying every TSA employee goes out of their way to be rude, but it doesn't take many to do it for everyone to look bad.
It's a form of bigotry, and bigotry is strong with people. We're hardwired to distrust unfamiliar things. Sure, there's plenty of us who love unfamiliar things but we're a minority.
Just for the record: I absolutely think TSA workers should be treated politely and with respect by travelers going through the security checkpoint, and that's how I behave when I do.
don't all human beings deserve to be treated with respect? Or corrected if they abuse others?
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bad stutter there
Isn't it a crime to impersonate a police officer?
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ah,you don't know the Mall Ninja, do you?
disemvowel this or is it too jackassy?
Next time you go to an airport, try wearing clothes like whatever the TSA staff wears at that time, without the decals. Just the same colour and style. You will get better treatment from the screeners. According to this theory anyway.
ah! I see they will now fine anyone US$1,500.00 for failing to say "Yowsah Massah! and shuffling appropriately.
tsa are not real cops and cant arrest you but they have more power than cops in many ways. cops dont go searching every single person they see. cops generally dont ask stupid questions either, but tsa have been known to ask alot. i was traveling on a u.s. domestic flight on a canadian id. tsa supervisor pulls me aside and calls some other guy. he proceeds to ask me questions about my citizenship, relatives, addresses, jobs, and even what kind of car my relatives drive.