Transportation Security Screener Conduct screening of passengers, baggage, or cargo to ensure compliance with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations. May operate basic security equipment such as x-ray machines and hand wands at screening checkpoints.
Transportation Security Screener is Also Know as
In different settings, Transportation Security Screener is titled as
- Security Screener
- Transportation Security Officer (TSO)
Education and Training of Transportation Security Screener
Transportation Security Screener is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Transportation Security Screener
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Transportation Security Screener
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Transportation Security Screener
Training Required for Transportation Security Screener
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Transportation Security Screener in different industries are
- Security Guards
- Transit and Railroad Police
- Baggage Porters and Bellhops
- Flight Attendants
- Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
- Airfield Operations Specialists
- Customs and Border Protection Officers
- First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers
- Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors
- Compliance Officers
- Security Managers
- Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance
- Crossing Guards and Flaggers
- Parking Enforcement Workers
- Security Management Specialists
- Air Traffic Controllers
- Passenger Attendants
- Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters
- Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators
What Do Transportation Security Screener do?
- Ask passengers to remove shoes and divest themselves of metal objects prior to walking through metal detectors.
- Check passengers' tickets to ensure that they are valid, and to determine whether passengers have designations that require special handling, such as providing photo identification.
- Close entry areas following security breaches or reopen areas after receiving notification that the airport is secure.
- Confiscate dangerous items and hazardous materials found in opened bags and turn them over to airlines for disposal.
- Contact leads or supervisors to discuss objects of concern that are not on prohibited object lists.
- Contact police directly in cases of urgent security issues, using phones or two-way radios.
- Decide whether baggage that triggers alarms should be searched or should be allowed to pass through.
- Direct passengers to areas where they can pick up their baggage after screening is complete.
- Inform other screeners when baggage should not be opened because it might contain explosives.
- Inform passengers of how to mail prohibited items to themselves, or confiscate these items.
- Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation.
- Inspect checked baggage for signs of tampering.
- Locate suspicious bags pictured in printouts sent from remote monitoring areas, and set these bags aside for inspection.
- Monitor passenger flow through screening checkpoints to ensure order and efficiency.
- Notify supervisors or other appropriate personnel when security breaches occur.
- Perform pat-down or hand-held wand searches of passengers who have triggered machine alarms, who are unable to pass through metal detectors, or who have been randomly identified for such searches.
- Record information about any baggage that sets off alarms in monitoring equipment.
- Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.
- Send checked baggage through automated screening machines, and set bags aside for searching or rescreening as indicated by equipment.
- Test baggage for any explosive materials, using equipment such as explosive detection machines or chemical swab systems.
- View images of checked bags and cargo, using remote screening equipment, and alert baggage screeners or handlers to any possible problems.
- Watch for potentially dangerous persons whose pictures are posted at checkpoints.
- Challenge suspicious people, requesting their badges and asking what their business is in a particular areas.
- Follow those who breach security until police or other security personnel arrive to apprehend them.
- Patrol work areas to detect any suspicious items.
- Provide directions and respond to passenger inquiries.
Qualities of Good Transportation Security Screener
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Tools Used by Transportation Security Screener
- Backscatter imaging units
- Black lights
- Body imaging scanners
- CastScope machines
- Chemical detection testing kits
- Desktop computers
- Explosive detection systems
- Explosive trace portals
- Handheld metal detectors
- Laptop computers
- Magnifying loupes
- Millimeter wave imaging units
- Mobile radios
- Multi-line telephone systems
- Personal computers
- Two way radios
- Walk-through metal detectors
- X ray security inspection equipment
Technology Skills required for Transportation Security Screener
- Applicant tracking software
- Email software
- Linux
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
- Oracle Java
- Oracle Taleo
- Rapiscan Threat Image Projection
- Slack
- Web browser software