Why Replacing TSA Officers with ICE Agents Misses the Point of Aviation Security
In times of disruption—whether it’s a government shutdown or staffing shortages—it’s natural for policymakers to look for quick fixes. One proposal that has surfaced and is being deployed is for ICE agents to supplement or replace TSA officers at airport checkpoints....
Aviation Security Risks During Global Conflict and Government Disruptions
How do government shutdowns or funding disruptions affect the aviation security workforce, particularly TSA officers, and what risks could that create for the system? Periods of global conflict can increase the risk of retaliatory violence and opportunistic attacks at...
Keep Your Shoes On – Maybe It’s a Good Idea, Maybe It Isn’t: Let’s See
The Origin of the Shoe Removal Policy On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid attempted to detonate a bomb concealed in his shoe on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. An alert flight attendant and several passengers managed to prevent the bombing, but the...
9/11, We Forgot
I finally lived long enough to see us forget about 9/11. Maybe not all of us but at least some politicians and others seem to have forgotten about it. They continue to call for the abolishment of the TSA, seemingly without any reasonable justification or thought about...Tragedy over the Potomac
By now, we’ve all heard about the tragic mid-air collision over the Potomac River between an American Eagle Canadair Regional Jet 700 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. The challenge right now is determining how it happened and what can be done to prevent it from...
