Aviation And Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

The Travel security agency, or the TSA, is an important agency whose job it is to protect our nation in airports and borders. Impressively, the Agency has stopped many weapons, and saved our citizens numerous times. According to several experts however, the TSA has never stopped a terrorist plot. Their methods have been questioned too. As our nation grows deeper and deeper in debt, the TSA is a huge cost that may need to be cut. In order to gain a clear understanding of the TSA, its successes, issues, and cost must be evaluated critically.

Surely the TSA has foiled some sort of terrorist plot in its nearly fifteen years of existence. But in reality, as far as we know, the TSA has not caught any! Nearly 200 million dollars a year goes into a hidden layer of airport security referred to as “behavior detection” which is where specially trained agents watch out for particular patterns of body language that might indicate that somebody is planning something malicious and apprehending them. However this supposed “vital layer” of security has done nothing more than catch drug smugglers and other such criminals. (CITATION 3) Which is great, but it was not drug smugglers that crashed planes into the World Trade Center. Adding more salt to the wound, an investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office found in that sixteen individuals later linked with terrorist activities flew 23 different times through United States Airports and not a single one was stopped by the so called “behavior detection officers.” (CITATION

In November of 2001, the United States was still reeling from the attacks on September 11 of that same year. President George W. Bush created a new organization to prevent future attacks on American flyers. The organization was called the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. The TSA was tasked with implementing security measures to protect travelers. At first, the measures were welcomed by the public. They were seen as a necessary measure to protect against future 9/11 style attacks. But now, 15 years later, the measures the TSA have put in place have been questioned repeatedly by members of the public, the press and congress. Incidents such as the Underwear Bomber, where a Nigerian

According to Jason Villemez of the PBS News Hour, there were immediate changes to airport security following 9/11. Within 2 months of the attacks, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act was passed. This law requires that every single bag is screened at airports andrequires that certain procedures are followed at every airport (Swickard). Before 9/11, scissors, baseball bats, darts, and 4-inch-long blades were allowed, but these are now illegal under the ATSA (O’Connor). The Aviation and Transportation Security Act also created the Transportation Security Administration known as the TSA (Tognotti). Each airport had to supply their own security before 9/11, but with the creation of the TSA, the government supplied security for airports (Villemez). Gabi Logan of USA Today found that the increase in security including baggage checks caused a six percent decrease in the number of passengers. Passengers chose not to travel at all or found a different way to get to their destination. While security in airports was significantly increased, 9/11 also affected millions of Americans involved in the war on terror”.

Shortly after 9/11 twelve years ago, the federal government created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to protect air travel and prevent similar attacks. In 2012, the TSA had a budget of $8.1 billion, and while it claims to improve airport security, it fails to do so. Additionally, their checkpoints are privacy-invasive and cumbersome, negatively impacting the air travel industry. For these reasons, the agency should be abolished.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created on November 19, 2001, and was signed into law by the 107th Congress (NMAH, 2011). The TSA was created to strengthen the security of transportation systems while allowing free movement of people and trade (NMAH, 2011). In recent years the administration has seen a lower budget due to the removal of three programs and the money will be diverted to fund the wall on the Mexico border (Halsey, 2017). Slow screening times from TSA are causing people to miss their flights due to the large lines. Also, numerous items of contraband are not being detected by the

Through the history of aviation the importance of airport security has steadily increased. Since the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, many changes have taken place at airports to prevent such an attack from occurring again. The purpose of this paper is to: outline airport security procedures, discuss the different technologies involved with airport security, as well as examine the components of airport security. In addition I will also discuss the Transportation Security Administration’s role in our nation’s airport security.

Two months after the 9/11 attacks, congress passed Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and federalized airports. Prior to 9/11 airport security was outsourced to private companies with very lackadaisical regulations. The TSA and the Federal Air Marshall Service (FAMs). 9/11 affected all aspects of travel, even railways. Since 9/11there have been multiple attacks against transit systems including Moscow, Madrid and London by terrorist cells either affiliated or sympathetic to al Qaeda. President George W. Bush signed into effect the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA).

As we already know that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in 2002 as a result of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Transport Security Administration is one of the agencies within the DHS tasked to provide security especially in the Nation’s Transportation Systems. TSA came into existence when congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), which gives “TSA regulatory authority and responsibility for security over all transportation modes” (Department of Homeland Security, 2007). The Nation’s transportation systems comprises of aviation sector, Maritime sector, mass transit and passenger rail, Highways and motor carriers, Freight Rail, Pipelines, commercial vehicles, etc. (Mayenschein, 2015). Each

The Transportation Security Administration, more commonly known as TSA, is a part of the United States Department of homeland Security that supervises and manages the safety of travelers in the United States. Unlike other government operated tasks forces such as the military or FBI whose as been in existence since (), the TSA was only recently founded twelve years ago in 2001 after the devastating terroristic attack that took place in New York city’s twin towers earlier that year. There are more than forty eight thousand people employed by the TSA in airports, bus stations, railroads and freeways across every state, but you may never realize when they are nearby. Some have the typical security duties of checking bags, using different

One of those agencies is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), this agency is a direct result of the 9/11 events and has the responsibility for air, land and rail in an ever increasing world of transportation. Much like other security agencies, their job is to ensure freedom of movement for trade and people while mitigating any potential threat to the United States. This is achieved in a multitude of ways from check points to undercover air marshals. The very nature of their mission requires a great deal of interagency cooperation, the TSA must works with state, federal and local agencies across the country in order to secure all its areas of operation. An example of this interagency cooperation is the inspection process a person must go through when arriving in the country. Airports and sea ports both have an immigration checkpoint that everyone must pass through without regard to US citizen of visiting foreign national. They establish separate lines for citizen or non-citizen in attempt to speed the process, however all passports are checked and bags examined for any potential contraband. It is these checks where interagency cooperation comes in to play. A variety of security measures on the non-citizen line is in place that runs checks on passports which is linked to databases established to identify those who may be a threat to the US or have other undesirable traits which would likely limit or deny their access to the country. Such individuals would be

Rather than going through all the luggage and patting down and all the passengers they send everything through more advanced metal detecting. “TSA uses millimeter wave advanced imaging technology and walk-through metal detectors to screen passengers” (TSA). With these machines they will catch anything that can cause any harm on a plane like weapons; such as guns, knives, bombs, and anything else that could cause any harm.

According to Travel Weekly (2013), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) developed what we see today as a three-tier system for passenger and baggage screening at U.S. airports. The three preselected levels are “expedited, standard or enhanced” screening at the airport security checkpoint. This system, which requires the passenger not to do anything different according to Travel Weekly, since the system relies on data in the existing Secure Flight system that matches passenger reservations with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) watch list. Secure Flight is a TSA program that requires booking systems to include the passenger’s full name, gender, date of birth redress or Known Traveler number if applicable, and is a behind-the-scenes

Before even arriving to the airport secure flight are done, which is a procedure that identifies low and high risk passengers matching them to a watch list. This watch list includes the No Fly List. Secure flight collects personal information such as full name, date of birth, and gender which also assists with identifying both low and high risk passengers. On September 11, 2011 the United States was attacked by terrorist, upon those attacks a creation of Transportation Security Administration to help prevent attacks.

With the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the administration of George W. Bush introduced reforms in the screening process. A major component of these reforms was the establishment of the cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the TSA. TSA is an agency in the Department of Homeland Security and is responsible for screening all travelers and their luggage, as well as the screening of all air and rail transportation in the United States. The resulting changes in screening restricted potential carry-on weapons, such as sharp objects, scissors, clippers, and so forth. The TSA also used various methods of determining risk factors for the detainment and more extensive search of