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Comment by woolvalley | Hacker News Reader

Before the TSA, didn't airports just have security screeners employed by the airport directly? If the TSA is disbanded, you'll still have airport screeners and a set of regulations for their behavior.

What would effectively change?

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> Before the TSA, didn't airports just have security screeners employed by the airport directly?

Yep. And in many cases, all of those "ineffective" security people were fired when TSA was created after 9/11. Then, in order to fill all of the openings, TSA hired them (with little to no training) and gave them raises. Source: I know a few who went through this process in a regional airport (Toledo Express, in Ohio).

It wouldn't be a nation wide organisation. Mistakes in one airport wouldn't spread to the others.

Not mistakes as much as apathy. The TSA gets tested, and when it fails, it doesn't care.

I travel for work constantly and I can tell you right now every airport has their own security rules, even different TSA employees have their own rules. And they're all flexible when they need to be. Before I had pre-check, I was swabbed and run through a metal detector because the line was backing up too long. Now that I have pre-check, sometimes my laptop has to come out, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes my watch has to come off, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes my medically-required syringe and bottle of liquid is acceptable, sometimes I have to argue with them. Sometimes the metal detector randomly selects people for advanced screening. Sometimes I forget that my phone is in my pocket and wonder if the metal detector is even turned on since it didn't beep.

TSA does not follow a single set of rules. They make it all up as they go along, and the rules change day-to-day.

Not unless they decide to form a consortium to organize/cooperate with each other, perhaps motivated by a desire to reduce their liability. What would prevent the nominally independent security teams at LAX, ORD, LGA, etc from freely sharing their "intel" with one another? I really doubt you could sell the public on legislation that banned LAX security from talking to ORD security.

An airport security consortium of nominally independent security departments may end up being little better than the TSA. (I'd speculate that it could even be worse, but that seems dangerously close to defending the TSA and that makes me feel ill.)

Not every airport actively uses TSA and this is what they do.

Airports don't even HAVE to use the TSA.

I believe airports have to apply to use their own security instead of TSA and TSA normally denies this request.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_Partnership_Program

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