Posted on 06/30/2009 7:19:09 PM PDT by DBrow
WASHINGTON - The Federal Air Marshal Service is a "useless" agency staffed with under-worked officers who make few arrests, a Tennessee congressman is charging.
U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., has taken to the House floor in recent days to ridicule the service as a "needless, useless agency" and argue that air marshals have "a cushy, easy job" that requires little more than sitting on a plane.
He also contends that the number of air marshals charged with committing crimes exceeds the number of arrests the agents themselves have made.
"I think they are doing almost no good at all," he said.
The air marshal service, which falls under the Transportation Security Administration, is a law enforcement agency that is probably best known for putting armed, undercover agents on selected flights to help thwart possible terrorist attacks or other hostile acts.
President George W. Bush ordered the program to be greatly expanded after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. Before 9/11, the agency had roughly 33 air marshals. Today, there are about 4,000, although the exact number is classified.
Megan Norris, an air marshal and spokeswoman for the agency, defended the program, which has a 2009 budget of about $820 million.
"Obviously, aviation is our primary mission, and since 9/11, we've had tens of thousands of flights that have flown successfully under our watchful eye," she said.
While it's a common belief that an air marshal's job consists only of sitting on a plane and flying back and forth across the country, that is a misperception, Norris said.
"We're there to ensure the safety and security of the traveling public, so it's our vigilance and our training that allows us to be ready to react should there be any type of threat or situation on a plane that could harm the passengers, the crew, the aircraft," she said.
The congressman, however, said arrest records show that air marshals do very little. Since 2001, the entire agency has averaged slightly over four arrests per year. That comes to about one a year per 1,000 employees and means the government is spending about $200 million per arrest, Duncan said.
"When we are so many trillions of dollars in debt -- a national debt of over $13 trillion -- we simply cannot afford to waste money in this way," he said.
Norris countered that arrests aren't a good way to measure the agency's success. Federal air marshals are trained to report suspicious activity to local law enforcement agencies, "so even in situations where an arrest would be appropriate, the majority of that is handled by the local law enforcement in whatever airport or location we are at," she said.
Duncan also pointed to news reports that said dozens of air marshals have been charged with crimes or accused of misconduct since 9/11, including drunken driving, domestic violence, human trafficking and attempting to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.
Norris responded that the majority of air marshals are professionals who are dedicated to the job.
"We're out there ready to put our lives on the line to defend everybody on that aircraft and anybody else who could possibly be harmed, so it's disappointing to us when people choose to focus on that (misconduct)," she said.
Duncan stressed that he has never had any run-ins with an air marshal and said he doesn't even know anyone who works for the program. Regardless, he believes the government needs to be more reasonable in its security spending. He'd like to see the Air Marshal Service abolished, although he doesn't expect that to happen anytime soon.
"The problem is, nobody wants to vote against anything that has the word security attached to it," he said. "Well, we're going ridiculously overboard. Even if we spend the entire federal budget on security, we couldn't make life totally, completely safe."
On Wednesday, Duncan saw his contention proved right on the House floor. His amendment to freeze the agency's 2010 budget at the current level instead of giving it a proposed $40 million increase was shot down by a vote of 294-134 as the House wrestled with, and later approved, the program's $860 million budget for next year as part of the broader spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
"I just think this $860 million that we are about to appropriate for them would be much better spent on almost anything that you can think of," he said. "There are hundreds of other good things, maybe even thousands, that money could be spent on. I just think it's a total waste."
>Plus I think something like Glasers is safer than the Sig .357 the marshals carry.
Hm, really? I like my .357 Magnum, it’s a Colt Python though... not really CCW-style, but I have a .45 Glock that would do well as a CCW though.
Good glad he is not RINO. Interesting that he was against Iraq war.
I think the comment earlier on thread that banks don’t need guards if they haven’t been robbed is appropriate here. It is sort of like speed traps or IRS—the possibility that they could be on the plane is what is effective IMHO—not whether they actually are.
I think with the rather inconsistent foreign policy coming out of Washington, we may need the Air Marshalls more than ever because I think the terrorists likely feel more emboldened with new administration.
Yeah, lets get rid of all of them! I am along as soon as they apply the same “a couple bad apples justifies torching the orchard” standard to the local SWAT teams.
The story was here in FR somewhere.
“If you can spot an Air Marshal … he/she ain’t one. Trust me on that one.”
Trust me, if they aint an Air Marshal than there are other armed people on the planes.
They are easy to spot. I saw one try to put his gun thru the xray machine. His partner grabbed it off the belt and said “you don’t wanna do that”
“Pilots are locked behind their new security doors. For an armed pilot to respond to an emergency in the cabin requiring a gun, he’d have to unlock that armored door and open it, which could be the entire reason for the cabin ruckus.”
A pilot shouldn’t come out of his locked cabin, its his job to land the plane.
The passengers can take care of anything else except a bomb and then sometimes even that.
“Passengers wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell if trained terrorists took over control of an aircraft”
And a air marshal would? He’d be the first one taken out.
the key is to keep the bad people from getting on the plane in the first place.
Wyatt Earp wasn't a full-time government employee. He was a farmer, buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee.
The pilots should have the guns, not government workers. The air marshals have an incentive to kill people on occasion to justify their existence, and have done so. Pilots on the other hand have an incentive to keep people alive.
$860M. Say 5000 marshals, and an equal number of support people including trainers, admin, contracts, and so forth comes out to $86K per person. Add in training costs, health care, insurance, and so forth and per agent it’s not too much to have an armed person on the plane. Yeah, the pilot can open the cockpit door and get attacked if he wants to, and we can fantasize about armed passengers and ninja flight attendants, but realistically the only way we have now to get a guy with a gun legally on a flight is the air marshal program.
It probably costs less than putting 5000 cops on the street of a major city.
We have a Second Ammendment...why not just allow anybody with a CC permit to pack aboard a plane?
Well, nothing in the Second about permits or licenses. Maybe open carry on a plane is best, a poster above keeps saying he’s seen marshals with their weapons hanging out and nobody on the plane gets upset.
I agree keeping the bad people off the plane is first thought, but have you seen some of the goof balls that are doing the security??
If the air marshal does his job correctly, he shouldn’t be the first one taken out. If he jumps the gun or blurts out what he is, he’s an idiot.
An experienced traveler can spot the air marshals very very quickly. First of all the flight attendants treat them better. Many times they are allowed on the plan before anyone else. And they tend to have very small carryons. many times with a single heavy item in it that go clunk when they set it down.
“An experienced traveler can spot the air marshals very very quickly.”
LOL! If you spot one turn them in. That guy with the gun showing and irresponsible attitude either is not a marshal or should be fired. Do your duty. When you saw the man with the exposed gun on the flight you were on, what did you do? Assume he was an air marshal and do nothing?
What about the other people on the plane? Were they disturbed to see an exposed handgun on a supposed passenger?
As for being allowed on the plane first, you have never flown first-class, have you, or traveled with kids.
As for carry-ons, you think they put their Sig .357 in a case and put it under their seat? Then how was the one you saw “exposed”?
“When you saw the man with the exposed gun on the flight you were on, what did you do? Assume he was an air marshal and do nothing?”
Get off your high horse. Since he was talking with a flight attendent it was pretty darn obvious.
“What about the other people on the plane?”
Most other people didn’t notice.
“As for being allowed on the plane first, you have never flown first-class, have you, or traveled with kids.”
Still on that horse eh, frequently these jokers are allowed on the plane with the crew. Other times they board with first class and yet make their way to the back of the plane.
“As for carry-ons, you think they put their Sig .357 in a case and put it under their seat?”
Because he set it on the conveyor belt with a loud thunk and then his partner said “you don’t wanna do that” so they walked around the xray machine.
“I agree keeping the bad people off the plane is first thought, but have you seen some of the goof balls that are doing the security?”
Yes and those goofballs can really screw up your life, amazing isn’t it.
All the goofballs need to do is keep the guns and bombs off the plane. large knives would be an added plus. The passengers can take care of the rest.
So you don’t know how the marshall gets on the plane with his gun or where he keeps it.
You think they walk around the x-ray machine?
Clippity-clop!
I don’t think, I’ve seen it on many occassions. You’re really an annoying person, I’d be happy to have an air marshal on the plane if just to address you.
You said you saw an air marshal sitting in a seat by the toilets, talking to a flight attendant. Was his gun in a holster?
I fly all the time and have never seen that.
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