Firearms, weapons, things that can explode. All things that passengers take to airports even though those items should be left at home.
The Transportation Security Administration is serious (though not always 100 percent adept) about finding those items, but at least “Blogger Bog” Burns has an (odd) sense of humor about it all.
Football fans fumbling over where to sign-up for the Transportation Security Administration’s security checkpoint shortcut program – called TSA PreCheck – can now take care of that task during NY Jets and San Francisco 49ers home games at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, respectively.
The NY Jets and the San Francisco 49ers are the first to partner with identity-verification company Idemia to bring the IdentoGO technology and the PreCheck verification program to sports stadiums.
In the next few weeks, more sports teams are expected to join the program, which also provides some biometric-based technology that can enable ‘trusted fan’ programs to be deployed at some stadiums.
For now, Jets fans (ticketed or just tailgating) seeking to enroll in PreCheck will find a branded IdentoGo recreational vehicle parked at the MetLife entrance (between parking Lots E and F) on game days.
San Francisco 49ers fans on the west coast will need to be ticketed for the day’s home game to access the IdentoGoRV, which will be parked along the vendor-rich “Faithful Mile” (at the Green Parking Lot 1- Gate C).
Applying for TSA PreCheck costs $85 (and is good for 5 years) and the in-person ID verification process can take place at 44 airports, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicle offices or at a wide out-of-airport IdentoGo locations
But signing up at these football stadiums will come with a small bonus.
In addition to the time-savings for sports fans, those who sign up at New York Jets home games will receive a $20 gift certificate that can be used inside the stadium towards beer, food and merchandise. Fans who sign up at either stadium will also get an approved clear plastic bag that can be used to take items in the stadium.
The San Francisco 49ers PreCheck sign-up program kicked this past this weekend, but response to the program at NY Jets home games has been so positive that IdentoGo had to scramble to double on-site enrollment capacity after the first game.
Who gets your $85 and can you skip that fee?
According to TSA, the $85 fee a traveler pays to apply for the PreCheck program breaks down this way:
The vendor – IdentoGo is currently the exclusive provider of TSA PreCheck – gets $34.50, which TSA says, is used for staffing, leases, infrastructure, web, network, materials, equipment, mobile events, call centers and other services for the all the application sites around the country.
Later this year or next, TSA says it plans to issue a request for proposals from other companies that want to bid to provide this service.
$12.50 is the FBI’s Fee.
The balance of the fee goes to TSA, which uses its portion for administration of the application program.
For those who would like to avoid paying the fee, there are about a dozen credit cards (including selected brands of American Express, MasterCard, Visa and Diners Club) that offer a fee credit for the TSA PreCheck (and Global Entry) program and several airlines and hotel brands, including United Airlines, Hilton, IHG, Marriott and Carlson Rezidor, that allow members to pay for the program with mile or points.
(A slighty different version of my story about sign-ups for TSA Precheck extending to NFL stadiums first appeared on CNBC.)
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On the TSA blog each week there’s a report on the number of firearms – and loaded firearms – officers find at airport checkpoints.
The weekly numbers – and images – always alarm me. But this week’s report on the number of firearms found in the past TWO weeks is super alarming: over the past two weeks TSA officers found 165 firearms at airport checkpoints.
79 one week. 86 the week after.
Of those 165 firearms, TSA tells us 144 were loaded (!) and 56 had a round chambered.
Whenever I write about this I get emails telling me not to worry. “Those aren’t terrorists,” people tell me, “Just innocent ‘regular’ people who forgot they had their guns with them.”
What happens to these people? Often, nothing.
Depending on the state and the situation, travelers are somtimes just told to come back without their gun. Sometimes there’s a fine. Occasionally, an arrest.
You’d think that since by law no passengers are allowed to bring guns into the secure side of an airport – or onto an airpane – the number of people bringing guns to the airport would be decreasing.
But the yearly tallies just go up.
Any solutions??
Football fans take note: If you keep meaning to sign up for TSA Precheck but can’t make the time to go to the airport for the in-person interview part of the application, you now have the option of taking care of that task at NY Jets home games at MetLife Stadium.
An IdentoGO processing station will be set up between lots E and F outside of the MetLife gate during home games throughout the 2017 season.
More details here.
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You may remember the ‘old day’s’ of flying, when friends and family could go with you to the airport – and to the gate – to send you off, and when they were there at the gate with hugs and kisses when you got home.
9/11 changed all that, but now Pittsburgh International Airport is bringing that airport amenity back.
The airport has worked with the Transportation Security Administration to get approval for a program that gives the non-flying public to access gates, shops and restaurants beyond the security checkpoint. No plane ticket and, they emphasize, no reduction in security, will be necessary.
The ‘myPITpass” program starts at 9 a.m. on September 5 and will issue same-day passes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Here’s how it works:
The program builds on PIT’s successful Holiday Open House program and the Airside access for guests program offered by the airport Hyatt hotel.
In addition to giving non-flyers access to the gates for sending off loved ones and welcoming them home, the program gives the public access to the great artwork at PIT Airport.
The extra pat-downs passengers often have to undergo at airport security checkpoints are not only irritating to those of us not interested in having our body parts touched by strangers in public, they make the lines go slower for everyone.
What triggers those secondary pat-downs? False alarms.
A high rate of those false alarms are triggered by expensive and, evidently, not too reliable, potential-threat algorithms the Transportation Security Administration purchases from the manufacturers of airport scanners.
In an effort to fix the problem TSA has put up $1.5 in prize money to see if someone else – maybe you? – can improve the accuracy of the threat prediction algorithms.
The contest, being run in partnership with Kaggle will award eight prizes (1st prize: $500,000; 4th to 8th prize: $100,000) and to enter you’ll need to evaluate a set of body scans.
These are real body scans, from TSA volunteers, and the “images may contain sensitive content,” the rules explain. So contest participants are asked to “conduct yourself with professionalism, respect, and maturity when working with this data.”
Here are links to deadlines and more information. Good luck!
As the busy summer travel season kicks into high gear and tips for travelers roll out from here and there, here’s one helpful piece of advice gun owners should heed: make sure you remove your firearms from purses, pockets and satchels before heading to the airport.
It seems impossible in this era of terrorism alerts and heightened attention to travel safety, but people keep taking their firearms with them to the airport.
Last week TSA officers discovered a record 82 firearms in carry-on bags at airports around the country.
Of those record 82 firearms discovered, 66 were loaded and and 18 had a round chambered
That eclipses the record of 81 firearms found during one week in August 2016 and tied in March 2017.
Most travelers found with firearms in their carry-ons say they simply forgot they had those weapons with them. Others may just be using that excuse to evade serious repercussions when caught
In some states, and under certain circumstances, nothing much happens to travelers found with firearms in their carry-ons; they’re simply told to put their guns elsewhere (Their parked cars, maybe? Or to send them home with a friend?) In some cases, though, travelers bringing firearms to the checkpoint can be arrested and fined up to $11,000.
https://youtu.be/0SLI3Q1bIrs
How much do you love the Transportation Security Administration?
Enough to leave a tip every time you go through security at the airport?
I didn’t think so.
But in their rush to get through airport checkpoints, passengers leave a hefty amount of ‘tips’ for the TSA every year.
For its fiscal year 2016, the Transportation Security Administration reports that passengers left behind more than $867, 812.39 in coins and currency in the plastic bowls and bins at airport checkpoints.
That’s about $102,000 more than was left behind in 2015 and more than $484,000 than was left behind in 2008.
Over the years, the amount of change left behind by travelers at airports has been climbing, jumping from about $489,000 in 2011 to almost $675,000 in 2014 and to almost $766,000 in 2015.
Last year, passengers at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport were the most forgetful (or generous…) travelers, leaving behind $70,615 in unintentional ‘tips’ for TSA.
Also on the top ten list for fiscal year 2016: Los Angeles International Airport, where travelers left behind almost $45,000, and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, where more than $42,000 in cash and currency was left in checkpoint bins.
What happens to all that money?
Back in 2005, Congress passed a law saying TSA gets to keep that unclaimed cash and spend it on any sort of civil aviation security efforts it deems fit.
In at least two previous years’ reports, TSA stated that the unclaimed money collected from airports would be used to support the expansion of the TSA Precheck program, which gives travelers expedited screening privileges, allowing them to keep shoes and lights jacks on and their laptops and quart-sized bag of liquids and gels inside their carry-ons.
When it filed its report on the almost $868,000 in unclaimed money collected from airports in fiscal year 2016, however, TSA said it had not yet determined how it would spend those funds.
Don’t want to leave a tip?
At some airport checkpoints, passengers can also empty loose change from their pockets directly into donation bins for local charities before moving through the line.
During 2016, travelers passing through Denver International Airport donated $87,106.91 to Denver’s Road Home, a non-profit that works with service providers for the region’s homeless community. And last year passengers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International contributed more than $11,000 to help support the USO operations at the airport.
You’d think air travelers would have gotten the message by now. But evidently not.
The TSA has done its 2016 tally and found that another record has been broken for the number of firearms found in carry-on bags and on passengers at airport checkpoints.
According to TSA’s Year in Review report 3,391 firearms were found during 2016.
That’s 28 percent more than the 2,653 firearms found in 2015.
According to TSA’s report, of the 3,391 firearms found during 2016, 83 percent were loaded and the most firearms – 198 – were found at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Top 10 airports for firearms discoveries:
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL):198
Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW): 192
George Bush Intercontinental Airport – Houston (IAH):128
Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX):101
Denver International (DEN): 98
Orlando International Airport (MCO):86
Nashville International (BNA):80
Tampa International (TPA):79
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS):78
Salt Lake City International (SLC):75
Beyond firearms, TSA finds lots of other odd things in travelers’ bags.