The Transportation Security Administration is not just angering travelers at airports. The TSA also does buses, trucks, subways and trains.
Guess what? The none-too-popular agency appears to have had the same kind of unimpressive performance issues on the rails as it has in the aviation industry.
Since 2005, the TSA's Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response teams have been spot-checking for terrorism threats in the nation's massive network of highways and rail systems -- a seemingly overwhelming task.
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A great deal of credit for VIPR improvement should go to Amtrak's police chief, John O'Connor, who was so outraged about an incident in Savannah, Georgia, in February 2011 that he angrily threw VIPR teams off Amtrak property until they learned how not to make fools of themselves.
"When I saw it, I didn't believe it was real," O'Connor said of a posting on an anti-TSA blog site. When he learned it was not a joke, "I hit the ceiling," he said.
TSA rail, subway spot-checks raise privacy issues
What happened in Savannah? A Visible Intermodal Protection and Response team became far too visible.
For reasons that have never been publicly explained, a squad of VIPR agents showed up at a Savannah Amtrak station one day and literally took over without the knowledge or approval of the Amtrak Police Department.
Everyone who entered the station was thoroughly searched. It didn't seem to matter whether people were getting on trains or getting off trains, or just looking for a place to go to the bathroom.
The TSA apologized repeatedly to the chief and promised never to do it again, but the version of the incident on its website was more arrogant than apologetic. O'Connor said apologies were irrelevant and the TSA website version was filled with inaccuracies.
The TSA must promise to never go beyond the policies of the Amtrak Police Department, he said, and to be certain that Amtrak police are present whenever VIPR teams take any action on Amtrak property or trains. The embarrassed TSA readily agreed to every requirement. Amtrak's policies are quite specific: Amtrak police (and therefore VIPR) do most of their security behind the scenes.
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Meanwhile, over at the yards, freight railroads were having their own problems with the VIPR teams. The TSA demanded that VIPR agents be allowed to enter yards at any hour of the day or night without notice and to watch employees from hidden positions. The railroads told the TSA to go to hell. Yards are dangerous places for amateurs, they said. It is easy to lose a leg or be crushed between couplers, not to mention that many yard employees unofficially carry guns to kill rats, and they could kill a rat in the weeds that turned out to be a human being.
Again, the TSA had no choice. It is not well known, but the TSA must have permission to go onto private property. That makes no difference at airports because the TSA must approve any new airport security arrangements if the agency is ordered to leave. The TSA has made it known that it will immediately move its equipment out of any airport that tells it to leave, and it will take weeks or months to approve any new security arrangements and equipment. At railroads, however, all the security equipment is owned by the railroads.
CNN
