In yet another sign of incompetence, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has failed to detect smuggled mock explosives and banned weapons through U.S. airport checkpoints 96% of the time. ABC reports, “In one case, agents failed to detect a fake explosive taped to an agent’s back, even after performing a pat down that was prompted after the agent set off the magnetometer alarm.”
The solution to the inept and costly unionized TSA (65,000 employees) is to dismantle it and move responsibility for screening operations to expert aviation security firms. In other words, privatize screening, as is done in all major airports in Canada and about three quarters of major European airports. Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards explains here how this would create a more efficient security structure that would allow government to instead focus on aviation intelligence and oversight.
