Re: Don’t Shoot the Groper - By Mark Krikorian - The Corner - National Review Online

Re: Don’t Shoot the Groper - By Mark Krikorian - The Corner - National Review Online

A well phrased and well timed point Mr Krikorian.

The TSA has problems. About a fifth to a third of the staff may be functionally unemployable and should be sent home. Unionization will make things much worse. The management should be replaced wholesale at every level. There are a scattering of retired senior military officers or retired senior police chiefs but most of the managers at the many many levels are terrible. Large numbers of dead ended federal bureaucrats got shifted over, especially from the FAA but also from other agencies. Relatively low level local police officers retired into a gravy train. Members of the prior to 9-11 screening force who were US citizens rather than being stigmatized by association with a failed predecessor were placed in positions of responsibility. Cronyism abounds and a thorough study should be made of their backgrounds and qualifications for the positions they hold.

The agency should be placed under the control of CBP, which can be renamed Customs Border and Transportation Protection (CBT). This would smooth the provision of federal Law Enforcement Officers where the agency is now uneasily dependent on local police support. Staffing and managing that role could provide a career path for the Federal Air Marshals. Currently they have no growth path in their jobs.

Supervision and Management of the checkpoints could come from senior levels of the new CBT (GS-12 and higher), who would be real federal LEOs. They could be supplemented with opportunities and a path to management offered to qualified Transportation Security Inspectors with 3 years of service in that role. TSIs could be recruited from three sources; superior Screening personnel, former senior military officers (O-4 and above), and retired senior police officers (Captain and above).

All candidates for promotion to the ranks of Supervisor and above, whether from CBT or the TSI, should spend 6 months serving as screening staff to learn operations. Junior military personnel (E-7 to O-3) and junior police (Sgt - LT) should spend 2 years on the checkpoints before transfer to the TSI or CBT ranks. Junior screening staff with no military service or service in the grades of E-4 and below and local police retired at the grade of Patrolman should spend 4 years on the checkpoints before applying for TSI. However any personnel young enough and qualified to apply to the CBT, FAM, ICE etc. should be encouraged to do so.