Airport Security Screening

[gabe]

I agree they should be better trained to deal with people and paid better wages. We aren't dealing with mall cops we are dealing with airport security! Lower paying jobs you will usually end up with higher turn over rates of employees. Cars at the border get searched by well trained officers who sure as hell aren't making anything close to minimum wage!! Seems the typical conservative argument is that everybody should settle for lower wages instead of striving for higher wages as if only CEO's and the upper management class should make any money.

 

[kEiThZ]

I agree they should be better trained to deal with people and paid better wages. We aren't dealing with mall cops we are dealing with airport security! Lower paying jobs you will usually end up with higher turn over rates of employees. Cars at the border get searched by well trained officers who sure as hell aren't making anything close to minimum wage!! Seems the typical conservative argument is that everybody should settle for lower wages instead of striving for higher wages as if only CEO's and the upper management class should make any money.

You bring up an excellent point actually. We dedicate more skilled manpower to scan passengers and baggage crossing by road or after they've gotten off a plane than we allocate to those getting on a plane.

 

[Dan416]

I don't think we need to go to the extremes that Israel has, but we can definitely learn a lot from them re: airport security.

So I'm in 100% agreement with keithz on this one. Quelle surprise lol.

 

[CDL.TO]

I want to take a moment to thank Beez, keithz, and nfitz for ending the off-topic discussion in a civil manner.

If there is any desire to discuss that topic further, please take it to the Politics and Diplomacy section.

 

[Transportfan]

I agree with you. It's really odd for example that a province like Alberta which has the wealth and an antipathy towards the centre, subcontracts to the RCMP every few years for policing.

It's also really ironic that a decentralized country like Canada with a weak federal government even has a national general police force -- something no other Western nation has.

 

[Admiral Beez]

It's also really ironic that a decentralized country like Canada with a weak federal government even has a national general police force -- something no other Western nation has.

I don't know if I'd call that ironic, perhaps contradictory would be apt.

A national police force makes sense when you have sparsely populated yet huge geographic area.

 

[kEiThZ]

I don't know if I'd call that ironic, perhaps contradictory would be apt.

A national police force makes sense when you have sparsely populated yet huge geographic area.

What does not make sense is that national police force providing local policing in populated provinces.

 

[ItsTehBean]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/28/canada.air.safety/index.html?hpt=Sbin

I know its old news, but on the other side of the border, FAA is looking at this.

Meanwhile, a presidential candidate in the US has proposed to scrap TSA if elected.

"Ron Paul's economic plan targets TSA
By Keith Laing - 10/18/11 03:57 PM ET

Rep. Ron Paul's plan to "restore America" includes abolishing the Transportation Security Administration.

Paul, a Republican presidential candidate and a lawmaker from Texas, is a longtime critic of TSA who has suggested eliminating the airport security agency before. His new economic plan would get rid of TSA as well as five Cabinet-level agencies, which Paul says will save the U.S. government $1 trillion.

Instead of having a TSA, Paul's campaign said he was in favor of "returning responsibility for security to private property owners."

In a recent GOP debate, Paul said airlines could protect flights better than a "federal bureaucracy." He also accused the agency of humiliating women, molesting children and abusing disabled people in a radio address this summer.

"If the perpetrators were a gang of criminals, their headquarters would be raided by SWAT teams and armed federal agents," Paul said on a July edition of his weekly "Texas Straight Talk" audio address.

"Unfortunately, in this case, the perpetrators are armed federal agents," he continued.

TSA, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks and is housed in the Department of Homeland Security, declined to comment on Paul's proposal Tuesday.

Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh has said he would be in favor of Paul's proposal.

On his show Tuesday, Limbaugh said "Ron Paul has a good idea," when a caller asked about Paul's proposals.

The other agency that would be eliminated under Paul's proposal are the departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Interior and Education."

http://thehill.com/blogs/transporta...bolishing-the-tsa-in-plan-to-restore-america-

 

[Admiral Beez]

What does not make sense is that national police force providing local policing in populated provinces.

I used to live in New Brunswick. Outside of Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John it's pretty sparsely populated. Since Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John have their own munipical police forces, a NBPP would have its work cut out for them policing the distant corners of the province. Meanwhile you'd need near duplicate NSPP, PEIPP and NFLDPP policing the distant corners of those provinces. So, that's four different police bureaucracies, training, infrastructure, etc. all for policing the half a million Altantic Canadians who live outside of the major cities. With this in mind, I'd say it makes sense to have the RCMP police Atlantic Canada, even though they are populated provinces. BTW, aren't all our provinces and territories populated?

 

[kEiThZ]

I meant heavily populated. But even for Atlantic Canada, I see no reason why there couldn't be a Police Service for each of those provinces. The newfies have an excellent police service: the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. They just aren't as fleshed out as they need to be.

The problem that I have with the RCMP, is that they haven't adapted to the modern era. They've retained their policing roles while striving hard inside the federal government not to see new agencies pop up to take on newly specialized roles. This is why the Mounties now do everything from counter-drug, national security, fraud to handing out speeding tickets. Jack of all, master of none. They need to leave local policing to the provinces (perhaps with the exception of the North and Aboriginal reserves) and become a specialized force that focuses on serving national policing and security needs, securing critical national infrastructure, providing support during times of crisis or major events, providing specialized investigative capabilities, etc. Basically become what we call them in French (le gendarmerie).

 

[kEiThZ]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/28/canada.air.safety/index.html?hpt=Sbin

I know its old news, but on the other side of the border, FAA is looking at this.

Meanwhile, a presidential candidate in the US has proposed to scrap TSA if elected....

The Republicans would outsource their bodily functions if they could. It's because of morons like him that companies like Xe (formerly Blackwater) have come up. Instead of the Army using reasonably paid troops to undertake certain tasks, we now have taxpayer trained private militias that get security contracts for ten times what the Army's own troops would cost. You can bet if airlines were given responsbility for security one of two things would happen: they would either cut corners or they would band together and hire private contractors and then slap on exorbitant fees for travellers everywhere.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I'd be prepared to pay a little extra to be patted-down by the right person.

 

[ItsTehBean]

The Republicans would outsource their bodily functions if they could. It's because of morons like him that companies like Xe (formerly Blackwater) have come up. Instead of the Army using reasonably paid troops to undertake certain tasks, we now have taxpayer trained private militias that get security contracts for ten times what the Army's own troops would cost. You can bet if airlines were given responsbility for security one of two things would happen: they would either cut corners or they would band together and hire private contractors and then slap on exorbitant fees for travellers everywhere.

I wouldn't call Paul "a moron" like the rest of GOP fields. He stands on the original Republican philosophies of avoiding military intervention, limited governmental roles and strict non-interventionist foreign policies. Compare Obama, Bushes, Clinton and see if the party affiliations do matter and has changed upon shift in party control. I think not.

The thing is that Xe (Blackwater) is the same company among the dozens of military industrial complexes that are being fed by the government to run the "War on Terror" in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact the US govt. has spent over $895 billions of dollars (correct me if this figure are incorrect) to fund the war operations, and still feed these companies. The word "private company" is just an image to the public, when in reality TSA hires them as contractors would mean they are still run by M.I.C.

OTOH, the Army is an interesting one. As Paul stated that the Army is supposed to defend their borders (rather than participating in foreign warfare) and should be responsible for domestic defense. And as for private security contacts, one must know that the airlines are among those that received bailouts (indirectly) through the banks and receive bankrupcy protections. Government interferences and involvement put cost increase on economy, social rights and security so he advocates for federal govt. to stay out of these affairs. His stance is quite simple - let the free market run the economy, reward those who do their deeds in proper way and hold those accountable for irresponsible messes like what we've seen TSA agents.

If he is elected, phase out govt. agencies that involves in commerce, education and human services, airlines would have to care themselves and customers, no rewarding or bailouts, and customers would be king.

That said, I said more than enough when it comes to mentioning security agents and privatization, which should be reserved for politics. But Canada's governmental role (mixed-economy) is far different from the States (quasi-market-oriented economy now screwed up by Obama Administration).