Criticisms
Measures employed by the TSA have been accused of fostering a false sense of safety. This has been described by security expert Bruce Schneier as security theater.
Criticisms have also included assertions that TSA employees slept on the job, bypassed security checks, and failed to use good judgment and common sense.
TSA agents are also accused of having mistreated passengers, and having sexually harassed passengers, having used invasive screening procedures, including touching the genitals, including those of children, removing nipple rings with pliers, having searched passengers or their belongings for items other than weapons or explosives, and having stolen from passengers. The TSA fired 28 agents and suspended 15 others after an investigation determined they failed to scan checked baggage for explosives.
The TSA was also accused of having spent lavishly on events unrelated to airport security, having wasted money in hiring, and having had conflicts of interest.
The TSA was accused of having performed poorly at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration viewing areas, which left thousands of ticket holders excluded from the event in overcrowded conditions, while those who had arrived before the checkpoints were in place avoided screening altogether.
A survey of frequent flyers found that 90% of frequent flyers think that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is doing either a poor or fair job in performing security screenings at the nation's airports, and 76.1 percent of respondents indicated that the TSA's screening procedures are either not effective or not too effective at preventing acts of terrorism on an aircraft (19.1% indicated somewhat effective, 4.1% stated very effective, and only 0.6% said extremely effective).
Read more about this topic: Transportation Security Administration
Famous quotes containing the word criticisms:
“The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments ... but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)