Anyone who has flown in the months following the attacks of 9/11 to present is very familiar with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The officers in the blue shirts can be seen everywhere in airports across the United States. They are supposed to be a symbol of safety, security and reassurance for passengers. Unfortunately have become to symbolize long lines, delays, ineptitude, scandal, and inappropriate conduct.
My goal is not to diminish or the work of TSA personnel as most of their employees care about security and safety. However, the hastily put together organization and poor training of its employees leaves much to be desired. Rep Ben, Stasse stated, “Washington has a lazy and destructive habit of building bureaucracies instead of setting strategies (Sasse, 2015).” Since its inception, the TSA has faced ridicule and has been the subject of negative press and scandal on an almost constant basis. Perhaps most damning has been the behavior by TSA officers that includes inappropriate touching, sexual assault and false imprisonment. …show more content…
House of Representatives Commitee On The Budget, 2013). It was formed as a direct response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Before that time, it was the responsibility of the airlines to provide their own security and passenger screening. Because the hijackers of 9/11 were able to penetrate the airlines screening process and smuggle weapons aboard planes, the federal government decided airport screening and security needed to be federalized, thus the TSA was born.
This paper will focus on the organizational problems of the TSA as whole. I will suggest changes the TSA should implement to revamp the agency focusing on organizational change through better training and hiring