Being A Citizen Of The Director Of Homeland Security

decided to overhaul their security protocols and specifically upgrade the security involving airports and airplanes. The upgrade in security of airports, although in some cases helpful, has caused an unnecessary amount of problems for American civilians due to the invasive changes made by the American government. Not only is it harder to get through security in America, but many of the American’s privacies have been taken away by the government in the name of safety as David Lyon says in his article on security changes in airports: “after 9/11, various policies and even laws concerning matters such as privacy and confidentiality have been overridden by the concern with ‘national security’”(405). Under the claim of safety, American and foreign civilians’ rights and privacy have been abused and taken away, leading to many people being overall upset and angry with the

TSA was created after 9/11 to strengthen airport security, since the hijackers were easily able to board the plane with weapons.

The TSA maintains a screening Performance Management Information System (PMIS) where recorded complaints are logged. Operations research analysis teams and federal security directors review complaints logged in the database to track trends and identify areas of concern and take appropriate actions, including possible disciplinary actions, to resolve specific issues. Complaints involving allegations of discrimination based on color, race, gender, religion, or national or ethnic origin are forwarded to the TSA’s Office of Civil Rights for further investigation. Despite considerable concern raised by some regarding inappropriate behavior during pat-down screening procedures, the DHS found no problems with the technique.

Another measure TSA took was to add body scanners to security. These scanners can see what a person is carrying underneath their clothes. There have been a few different designs to this machine due to some lawsuits in the past brought up because the TSA agents were making fun of a man’s gentile size or certain passengers would feel embarrassed because someone can see their bodies. Now what the TSA agent sees is an outline of the passenger’s body and whatever is on the body. The body scanner does not show a naked person anymore.

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.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, body scans and security checkpoints have become the norm for airports throughout America. Airports tell you what you’re allowed to have and they restrict small things such as scissors, pocket knives, too much

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.

Searching every person attempting to board a flight is easy compared to securing a huge land border. While national security is taken seriously concerning border crossings, it is also a contentious political subject. Politicians and business leaders have a large stake in keeping the border as open as possible and (I suppose) must balance this need with also defending the nation and meeting immigration laws. It is a mess that is made all the more difficult by the fourth amendment rights afforded every person from unreasonable search and seizure. The report “Protecting Our Perimeter: “Border Searches” under the Fourth Amendment” highlights the difficulties placed on border agents when it concerns searching people at or around the border. This coupled with the impossibility of searching 100% of all people entering or leaving the country by land, truly endangers national security as a whole. Where the fourth amendment is concerned, I feel the last sentence in the report really sums up the difficulty:

Those days of helping a mother with two children are long gone. Instead, the government has attempted to add procedures to airport security that supposedly provides more “protection” for Americans. In her essay, Zeltser discusses how people are now examined with a fine tooth- comb. She talks about her brother recently returning from a vacation in Mexico. He was pulled aside and asked so many questions that he, himself, was almost convinced that he had taken part in illegal dealings while he was on vacation (Zeltser190). Does one consider extreme interrogation of this kind to be protective measures?

"Savannah Barry, a 16-year-old Type 1 diabetic, uses an insulin pump that can malfunction when exposed to technology used in airport screenings. When she passed through the Salt Lake City airport for a flight home to Denver in May, she asked for a pat-down, but Transportation Security Administration workers directed her to pass through a scanner. Her parents weren't there -- she was on a school trip -- but she trusted TSA agents to guide her. But the pump makers could no longer guarantee that Savannah was receiving the correct amount of insulin after it passed through the scanner, and it had to be replaced" (Gumbrecht). The severe preventive procedures taken at airports ended not with Savannah Barry gaining a sense of stability but instead concern with her physical health. Furthermore, these extreme measures are not always accurate, as displayed by the 25,000 airport security breaches since 2001. "In one recent example, a JetBlue cleaning crew discovered a stun gun which had somehow been smuggled onto a flight from Boston to Newark on Friday, an apparent glaring breach of security" (Ferran). House subcommittee on National Security chairman

Debate continues over interpretation of fourth amendment rights as applied to the Transportations Security Administration’s (TSA) use of full body scanners. In the opinion article appearing in the Washington Post, Rosen clearly defines the arguments against full body or naked scanners attempting to sway public opinion and thus, swaying a potential supreme court decision regarding its use as a violation of the Fourth Amendment (2010). Not only does this article point out the level of invasiveness and the ineffectiveness of naked scanners but, also provides less intrusive methods that could be used in its place.

As with any government organization the TSA has taken much criticism on its security practices.

Why should anyone including my 3-year-old daughter unnecessarily be exposed to cancer causing X-ray beams in a full body scanner? Or have a total stranger run his or her hands up and down my daughter's body for a full pat-down upon refusing the scan? Most enraging is that the scan can be done without my knowledge. Full body scanners should not be used in United States airports. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), on November 20, 2010 implemented the use of 385 scanners, otherwise know as advanced imaging technology in 68 airports to include Denver International Airport. The TSA is using these machines supposedly to ensure safer travel and be steps ahead of security threats.

There are numerous conflicting views on the methods the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to examine a passenger who is going to board a plane. Although the methods use seem necessary for one's safety at airports, passengers feel that full body scans and pat-downs are a violation of their Fourth Amendment and the Privacy Act as Hunter, M.(2010) stated as one of the lawsuits made by a public interest research group. The TSA being able to search you without

“‘We are frequently reminded that our enemy is creative and willing to go to great lengths to evade detection,’ the director of the TSA, Kosketz said. ‘TSA utilizes the latest intelligence to inform the deployment of new technology and procedures, like the pat-down, in order to stay ahead of evolving threats’” (“Mad as Hell”).