The partial shutdown has revealed a giant secret: the TSA is mostly unnecessary and unneeded.
From the San Francisco Airport web page: "Covenant Aviation Security, a private company under contract with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), provides passenger and baggage screening at SFO."
SF uses a private company to perform security screening. They operate independently, but according to DHS rules.
Maybe it's time to return airport security to the people most capable of doing it: the local airports themselves. And maybe the airlines should take more responsibility for passenger screening.
We keep hearing about TSA "screeners" and how they either fail to do their jobs or use "random checks" to verify whether that is a colostomy bag or a liquid explosive (really!), or doing a full body search on an infant traveling to Orlando with family (really!). Those are the least of the offenses. And because those TSA "inspectors" are government employees, they can neither be sued nor disciplined for their offenses.
Putting security in the hands of private companies would force more sensible security handling. Why? The private employees would be held to a "don't screw up because we'll fire you" standard.
And the private security company will have the freedom to experiment with more advanced and efficient screening measures such as "passenger profiling", something the government can't do because a federal judge will (and has in the past) prevent it.
Lastly, it would mean a reduction in the federal workforce accompanied by a reduction in expenditures at DHS. That's a win-win in anyone's book.
