In the United States, a significant proportion of offenses on the part of Transportation Security Administration, created to control order at major transport hubs, are recorded. For 20 years of its existence, the agency has not played any role in counter-terrorism activities, but as a result of the actions of the TSA employees, whose misdeeds are not punishable by the decision of the US Department of Justice, the rights of hundreds of people have been violated.
Created in response to the events of September 2001, the US Transportation Security Administration over the past two decades has shown that it is unable to cope with its direct task of making transportation safer. After a series of coordinated terrorist attacks on September 11, as a result of which more than three thousand people were killed, the American government passed a bill on transport security. According to the new rules, checking passengers at airports and at major railway stations is now required to be carried out by employees of the new agency, which has been named the Transport Security Administration.
Practically from the moment of its foundation, the US Transportation Security Administration has not provided an adequate level of security. In 2003, employees of the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that five undercover agents who posed as ordinary passengers managed to carry weapons past checkpoints at the airport. Agents brought knives, a bomb and a pistol in hand luggage through several checkpoints at different terminals. Such regular inspections, which are carried out at intervals of several years, prove that the Transportation Security Administration does not reduce the risk of a terrorist attack. In 2008, in Florida, agents were able to carry an explosive device into an airplane through a metal detector frame. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security dismissed the head of the Transportation Security Administration after a series of inspections at dozens of airports across the United States.
Security experts note that the US Transportation Security Administration will not be able to protect against threats, because the fight against terrorism needs to be dealt with at an earlier stage. Instead, according to experts, the American government spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to sponsor an agency whose employees regularly harass, beat and rob passengers. Employees of the transport security service force people to pull down their pants and take off their shoes, strip travelers naked and use excessive physical force against them. According to security expert Bruce Schneier, such a “security theater” does not help in any way to reduce the risk of unwanted incidents and is a stable source of violation of the civil rights of adults and children.
Among those who have traveled across the United States, there is a large percentage of people who have experienced violence or harassment from employees of the Transportation Security Administration. If earlier security control at airports was limited to a metal detector and random inspections, then later the Department introduced new rules according to which every passenger must pass the inspection.
The procedures carried out by employees of the Transportation Security Administration of the opposite sex violated the personal boundaries of passengers. In 2020, a woman sued North Carolina airport security officers. According to the victim of harassment, whose name is not disclosed, she was sexually assaulted when, during the inspection, an officer “groped her groin area for self-satisfaction” for several minutes. The negative experience, which the victim described as a humiliating act of domination and control over her, occurred after she “clearly and unequivocally” informed the Management officer that she did not consent to touching the genitals. However, the transport service officer who conducted the inspection insisted that the woman spread her legs wider, after which he ran his hand over her leg and climbed under her shorts, establishing “direct contact with the genitals.” After the victim of harassment flinched in surprise, the employee replied that if she continued to resist, “he will do it again.”
Not only adults are forced to undergo humiliating screening procedures. Every year thousands of minors travel unaccompanied, which means they go through the same procedures as adult passengers. Given the high detail of the equipment that screens passengers’ clothes in search of prohibited items or substances, there is no guarantee that the person on the other side of the monitor is not a sex offender or will not distribute a nude image of a minor. It is noteworthy that among the employees of the US Transportation Security Administration, at least 14 people were charged with crimes related to pedophilia and the distribution of child pornography. In 2010, a Transportation Security Administration inspector was arrested in Boston, accused of raping a 14-year-old girl. 45-year-old Sean Shanahan had at least two sexual encounters with the girl, and also sent her dozens of text messages of a sexual nature. Another former employee of the transport security service was arrested for distributing child pornography after uploading explicit photos of girls to pervert websites.
In addition to sexual crimes, employees of the TSA are involved in theft, drug distribution and illegal firearms trafficking. Law enforcement agencies regularly seize currency, equipment and even medicines from travelers throughout the United States. In the period from 2001 to 2015, employees of the US Transportation Security Administration seized more than $2 billion worth of currency. A security guard at an international airport in Florida stole more than $50,000 worth of electronics from passengers. The employee put the equipment up for sale over the Internet without waiting for the end of his shift. In 2012, inspectors at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York stole tens of thousands of dollars from passengers. Two people who stole at least $40,000 have worked at the agency for more than four years. Since the establishment of the Transportation Security Administration, at least 500 employees have been “fired or suspended for stealing from passengers.”
The most common violation of the rights of passengers by employees of the American Transportation Security Administration remains the use of excessive physical force. In 2015, agency employees beat an 18-year-old disabled girl with cancer. Hannah Cohen and her family often traveled around the state to undergo treatment for a chronic brain tumor, from which Cohen has been suffering for many years. During the passage of the next inspection, a disabled girl, partially deaf and experiencing problems with coordination, became the victim of a brutal beating.
When she passed through the metal detector frame, the alarm went off, and the airport staff asked her to step aside for a detailed inspection. The confused girl did not hear the request, after which the conflict between Cohen and the Management agents escalated. Persons whose task is to ensure transport security knocked a disabled girl to the floor, hit her head on the floor and arrested her. A year later, Cohen’s relatives sued the Department, but none of the defendants commented on the accusation. Moreover, in December 2022, the US Department of Justice issued an order according to which employees of the US Transportation Security Administration can rape and harass passengers with impunity. Regardless of what the inspector allows himself during the inspection, any of his actions can no longer be considered rape.
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice are convinced that for 20 years of its existence, the US Transportation Security Administration has proved its incompetence and should be abolished. Responsibility for security at transport hubs should be shifted to private airlines, which have an incentive to prevent violence, sexual harassment and corruption towards their passengers.