TSA Agent Arrested In The Detroit Area

Maverick

Maverick

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A TSA agent and two alleged accomplices were arrested and each are being held on one million dollars bond in Macomb County Michigan. The trio are being held in connection with a string of robberies of fast food restaurants through out the Detroit metropolitan area. The following two links have more detail on the story:

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/23136823/detail.html

http://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/320601935/m/2920066802

We have all heard of other crimes committed by TSA agents so the question in my mind is what sort of inadequate screening procedure does the agency have in place to assure the people they hire to protect the public are not criminals.
 
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Yet ANOTHER TSA winner!

Recently the TSA ordered the Richmond, VA airport authority to issue a SIDA badge to one with a record of armed robbery.

And they wonder why they aren't respected.....

(They're supposed to do a background check on the employees, but it's far less than the security clearance background check process. Basically, it's like a SIDA background check. I'd further posit that a background check, by itself, has limited ability to predict future behavior. Yet this agency thinks that it can identify potential terrorists by using behavior observation.......)
 
wsuffa said:
(They're supposed to do a background check on the employees, but it's far less than the security clearance background check process. Basically, it's like a SIDA background check. I'd further posit that a background check, by itself, has limited ability to predict future behavior. Yet this agency thinks that it can identify potential terrorists by using behavior observation.......)
Click to expand...

Ironic, isn't it.
 
wsuffa said:
Yet ANOTHER TSA winner!

Recently the TSA ordered the Richmond, VA airport authority to issue a SIDA badge to one with a record of armed robbery.

And they wonder why they aren't respected.....

(They're supposed to do a background check on the employees, but it's far less than the security clearance background check process. Basically, it's like a SIDA background check. I'd further posit that a background check, by itself, has limited ability to predict future behavior. Yet this agency thinks that it can identify potential terrorists by using behavior observation.......)
Click to expand...

In my travels, which are not as extensive as some of the members here, I've had the impression that many of these TSA screeners are barely literate minimum wage security guard types. Now I have no idea what the wage scale is or what the qualifications are when they hire these people but based on my own observations I can't help but wonder if the TSA is just another ineffective program and a waste of tax payer dollars.

Based on the planning, which we have seen highlighted in TV specials, that went into the 911 hijackings can we actually expect that the TSA screeners have the ability to thwart a well planned operation by highly motivated terrorists. But they have confiscated a lot of finger nail clippers.
 
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This is the same agency that charges foreign flight students $130.00 for a background check. Somehow, I don't think they're getting their moneys worth.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with TSA that could not be fixed, if only they had a leader. Perhaps if they could talk, say, a McDonald's hamburger manager, into conducting seminars on management and leadership to the TSAs top management team, that might help. Of course, I'm making an assumption that TSA has a management team of sorts, somewhere.

Another solution might be for some high official in government to appoint someone to head up the TSA organization.

If TSA had someone in charge, you know, taking responsibility for the organization, they might lose their Keystone Cop method of conducting business. It's possible, it could happen.

John
 
Maverick said:
In my travels, which are not as extensive as some of the members here, I've had the impression that many of these TSA screeners are barely literate minimum wage security guard types. Now I have no idea what the wage scale is or what the qualifications are when they hire these people but based on my own observations I can't help but wonder if the TSA is just another ineffective program and a waste of tax payer dollars.

Based on the planning, which we have seen highlighted in TV specials, that went into the 911 hijackings can we actually expect that the TSA screeners have the ability to thwart a well planned operation by highly motivated terrorists. But they have confiscated a lot of finger nail clippers.
Click to expand...

Here's the issue....

Right after 9/11 - when the agency was formed - it attracted a lot of experienced, highly qualified individuals that saw it as an opportunity to use their skills for patriotic purposes. The agency also inherited a bunch of low-level, poor quality screeners from the private screening companies.

The agency also attracted some "flameouts" from other agencies, and folks that looked at it as a good place to retire (some retired in place). At the top levels, some SES-types were not so good or motivated.

The experienced, qualified, patriotic individuals became disenchanted and demotivated by the outright incompetance of the others, the disarray within the agency, and the seeming unwillingness/inability for top leaders to fix the problem. They were backfilled by more of the unmotivated, inexperienced, "typical government bureaurat" type. And that's where we are today.

I've heard that enough times from enough people from different perspectives that I've concluded that it's true.

I had one "former FSD" type from a major airport tell me that he got pretty disenchanted, that the job was not what was expected, and that some of the directives were pure "show". He is an ex-military and former Secret Service person who was high-ranking in his local Secret Service office. He left - and has told me that the agency and it's procedures are "the blind leading the blind".

IMHO (and it's worth what you pay for it), this is another case where the government has paved the road to hell with good intentions.
 
wsuffa said:
snip
The experienced, qualified, patriotic individuals became disenchanted and demotivated by the outright incompetance of the others, the disarray within the agency, and the seeming unwillingness/inability for top leaders to fix the problem. They were backfilled by more of the unmotivated, inexperienced, "typical government bureaurat" type. And that's where we are today.

I've heard that enough times from enough people from different perspectives that I've concluded that it's true.

/snip
Click to expand...


Pretty good description, and it also applies to the whole DHS parent organization.
 
TMetzinger said:
Pretty good description, and it also applies to the whole DHS parent organization.
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The DHS is a PIA. Some of the orgs they sucked in can be pretty normal, although the TSA ain't one of the normal ones. Keep in minds that USCG, SS, and a couple of others are in DHS now. Thankfully the changes as a result of that have mostly been better.
 
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