[kurczynski]

  She said her fellow officers are “out there working, they’re putting their lives on the line. We took that oath when we got hired here, and we’re not even getting what we deserve.”

All budgeting problems aside, how do TSA officers put their lives on the line?

[jmvoodoo]

Unlike most other forms of law enforcement, TSA agents lives are most at risk when off-duty and someone learns they are an agent in a social setting. As a result, the government shutdown is putting TSA lives in jeopardy.

[edm0nd]

They are at risk of getting laughed at.

[meowface]

I doubt even that. Most agents would probably just say "I don't like them either, but it pays the bills".

[rococode]

Honestly can't tell if you're being facetious haha. It's not that I think the risk of them being attacked for being a TSA officer is high, but the risk they face at their jobs seems so low.

[nradov]

TSA agents are specifically not law enforcement. They don't swear the same oath as federal law enforcement officers, don't carry weapons, and have no arrest powers.

[chooseaname]

I guess they think they're law officers or something. They're more akin to security guards. I hate that individuals are not able to go to work and earn a wage but I really thing the TSA is full of themselves.

[goobynight]

Even safer than being a security guard I bet.

I'd say their risk profile is limited to someone attacking the checkpoint explosively, which has not happened.

Nobody goes to rob the till or start a knife fight at the airport.

There's too many people for anything short of large scale violent crime, which is pretty rare.

[petercooper]

It's a common turn of phrase used by people who are working "for their country" in security related jobs.

People in the police, army, and similar forces (whether TSA officers are considered as such is a political point) are often spoken about in similar terms regardless of how dangerous their jobs actually are (e.g. an Army chef based in the US may be revered just as much for putting their 'life on the line' as someone running into Helmand because it's about their service to the country rather than the absolute risk).

[eeeeeeeeeeeee]

Right, but police and army have an actual risk. It’s not really the same comparison.

I never hear people talk about how the postal service mail carriers “put their lives on the line” although they are probably at an increased over TSA because of dog attacks.

[Cpoll]

I'm genuinely curious, myself. In the US, how many deaths in the line of duty are there (per thousand) for police officers, firefighters, and TSA agents, to juxtapose?

[delecti]

Only one TSA officer has ever been killed on-duty, and they have a total of 57,000 employees as of 2016 [1]. Not all of them are inspection agents (maybe 1/3? I'll use 20,000), but they've been an agency since 9/11 (I'll use 17 years). That makes 1 death per 340,000 agent-years. Admittedly I don't know how their total employee number has changed over time, and my 1/3 estimate could be wildly off.

Meanwhile the statistic for police in the US in 2013 was 11.1/100,000 [2], about 37 times as dangerous, or 18.3/100,000 for firefighters [3], or about 62 times as dangerous.

That's not the whole picture though, because it doesn't take into account hours worked, or injury (probably also higher for firefighters and police).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Security_Admini... [2] https://fee.org/articles/by-the-numbers-how-dangerous-is-it-... [3] https://www.firehouse.com/safety-health/news/10535644/firefi...

[HarryHirsch]

It's worth pondering that the overwhelming majority of police deaths are injuries when an inattentive driver runs over an officer during a traffic stop. Only a suicidal maniac would stand for an extended time on the drivers side of a stopped car on the highway. It would be a boon to public health if the police could just photograph a traffic offender and send him the ticket in the mail! The police unions would be disappointed, though, because then they can't use the statistics to argue for their members, because felony homicides of police officers are around 40/year in the US. That includes Greater Methville.

[Rebelgecko]

Maybe it's regional, but when I see police officers pulling someone over they almost always go to the passenger window.

[beatgammit]

That's the main difference between police officers and highway patrol in my area: police go to the driver side window, highway patrol go to the passenger side.

But yeah, it seems like an unnecessary risk for police to go to the driver's side. I always try to give them space, but quite a few drivers don't.

[a3n]

I read recently, maybe here, that standing by the side of the road deaths for law enforcement is no longer the greatest cause of death.

Also, I'm a truck driver, on the road all day every day, and cops are mostly on the passenger side these days. Anecdata.

[zik]

That's a whole lot less dangerous than being a mechanic or a farmer.

[beatgammit]

Statistics?

[Scoundreller]

Policing is 14th most dangerous job in USA per this list:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/2018/01/09/work...

Firefighters and Security guards are not in top 25.

[dmurray]

It's a bit surprising not to see the military on this list. According to [0] the US military has 82 deaths per 100,000 per year, around 55 of which are from "accidents" and "combat" which could reasonably be considered work-related deaths. That would put it in third or fourth place on the most dangerous list.

[0]https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fool.com/amp/investing/gene...

[Scoundreller]

Probably not captured under Bureau of Labor Statistics. Either military is completely excluded, or excludes ex-US.

Being on base in the USA is probably pretty safe, with a healthier than average population.

[stephencanon]

I suspect that BLS doesn't collect statistics on sex workers or the military (or they're not included on this list). There are probably a few other very dangerous jobs that are similarly omitted.

[dsfyu404ed]

Not all policing is equal. Beat cop in Chicago or Sheriff of Methville is on a whole different level than TSA. Park Rangers are probably much higher risk than your average TSA employee because the routinely work alone and often are put in a situation where they have to tell a bunch of drunk people to stop partying.

For what is pays and the educational requirements policing is a very safe job.

[xkcd-sucks]

Suicide is a major occupational hazard among airport screeners?

[Scoundreller]

As discovered in Belgium’s airport, those long queues waiting for security can be very risky places.

[eeeeeeeeeeeee]

Is there any incident of a TSA agent being assaulted on duty or even off-duty? I mean, I bet it compares to almost anyone working in a high customer interaction environment. It’s probably more dangerous to work at McDonalds.

[maccio92]

You don't think screening for bombs has any potential to be dangerous?

[kingnothing]

The TSA has never found a bomb.

[devonkim]

...that was reported. Question is whether whose interest it would be in to not publicly report on the number of bombs found by an agency. I can understand NSA and CIA not revealing much but am confused about TSA’s motives since they are much more public facing than anything in the intelligence community.

[dgzl]

Most underrated comment.

[DoofusOfDeath]

I don't think that statement, by itself, tells us much about the TSA's efficacy. Because their mere presence could be an effective deterrent.

[lostcolony]

We know at least two made it through. Underwear bomber, shoe bomber.

We also know pre-9/11 how common it was (non-existent).

We also know that they consistently fail audits. Though they've gotten better! Most recently they only failed ~75% of the time at detecting things auditors were trying to smuggle in, instead of the prior 95%!

So, yeah, by itself it doesn't. But we have enough data to make a pretty solid eval.

[mikeyouse]

Both the underwear bomber and shoe bomber boarded flights overseas (Amsterdam and Paris respectively) -- so no TSA involvement.

[goobynight]

The TSA has operated overseas before, but probably not in these countries.

If they see a country isn't up to their standard, I think they either show up to implement it for flights headed to the US or at least consult with the nation.

[acct1771]

Underwear bomber was Saudi intelligence/CIA, for the reader's info.

[shawnz]

But the parent comment wasn't regarding the efficacy of the TSA, it was regarding the dangers of being a TSA agent

[DoofusOfDeath]

All the parent wrote was:

> The TSA has never found a bomb.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't understand how that supports your statement.

[shawnz]

They were replying to a comment which implied that the main risk of working for the TSA is dealing with bombs. But the TSA has never dealt with any bombs, so clearly that's not actually a risk of working there.

[ed312]

At what scale? I would argue a taxi driver has a more dangerous job (in terms of probability of injury).

[kurczynski]

I believe I read that taxi drivers have a very high fatality rate in the United States, but definitely higher than law enforcement.

[sk5t]

Do you think searching Key West for rabid wolverines to be a very dangerous job, because, like, wolverines are pretty dangerous?

[ameister14]

You may as well say that construction workers, electricians and pizza delivery drivers are out there, putting their lives on the line

[maccio92]

Construction is a dangerous job as well. You can be hit by falling things, there can be heavy equipment failures, you can fall off the buildings if you're not sufficiently harnessed. Electricians too - there's a chance, however small, of receiving a lethal shock. Delivery drivers could get killed in car accidents, it happens every day (car accidents, not specifically involving pizza drivers but given they're on the road more often it's a statistically higher probability for them)

[ameister14]

Yes, these are all much more dangerous jobs than TSA - yet they wouldn't describe themselves as 'putting their lives on the line'- that's my point.

[cobookman]

https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2018/01/29/tsa-year-review-record-a...

[dmix]

> A realistic replica suicide vest and claymore mine were discovered in a traveler’s checked bag at the El Paso International Airport (ELP). The traveler was an explosives ordnance disposal contractor and the items were used as training aids.

I can't believe he'd be dumb enough to try to bring this on an airplane. It'd make way more sense to ship them to w/e destination.

[Rebelgecko]

TSA takes people's guns away on a daily basis. Eventually a passenger may not want to cooperate. I dislike airport security as much as anyone else (and because I opt out of the body scanners I've had plenty of undesirable intimate experiences with TSA agents), but their Instagram page is really enlightening. Sadly the guy who ran it passed away last year, but it's interesting to see the volume of contraband that people try to bring on planes. I think only 1 TSA agent has been killed while on duty, but a few more have been shot and and survived

[Canada]

Remember before all the TSA nonsense, airports had metal detectors and xrays operated by airport security? Did they not also prevent guns from being carried on planes?

[threeseed]

Isn't TSA just Airport Security ?

[Canada]

No, it's also a power and money hungry agency. The airport security of yore just did their jobs and were a lot more pleasant to deal with. The traveling public was just as safe.

[beatgammit]

And perhaps more safe. Security theater is a real thing and gives people a false sense of security.

I've heard that the reason we haven't had a major terrorist attack in the US since 9/11 was because of vigilance of the public. If people get lazy and start trusting that the TSA will competently do their job, we're likely to have another. I think it's because the TSA is pretty bad at their jobs that we haven't had anything major attack.

[vkou]

Airport security didn't try to extort you into buying pre-clearance, or try to enforce ridiculous and pointless rules.

[cellularmitosis]

I don't think local airport security back in the day had a nationally organized no-fly list.

[davidmr]

I wondered why the feed wasn’t as good these days; that’s really sad. He was really funny, and it was so unusual to associate humor with (in my experience) the most humorless branch of the federal government.

[dgzl]

An old project manager of mine flew with a gun once. It was entirely legal, because owning guns is legal, and flying is legal. It just had to be checked out and put away safely.

[Rebelgecko]

Flying with one in your carry-on is illegal for regular people. You can check one in your luggage but there's some special rules that sometimes the TSA and airline staff aren't familiar with (you must use a lock that is not TSA approved, you're not allowed to let TSA or airline staff borrow the key, stuff like that). The only time I traveled with a gun it was simpler (and cheaper!) to just mail it to myself.

[beatgammit]

Yeah, that's pretty stupid. It should never be cheaper to mail something small, like a gun, than to carry it with you.