TSA Commemorates 20th Anniversary of First Checkpoint

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Friday celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first airport security checkpoint in the nation.

Created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the TSA was established in November of that year and on April 30, 2002 it officially established its first checkpoint at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

The 20-year commemoration was held on April 29 at the airport.

BWI was the beta for all future airport TSA security checkpoints, with the new agency implementing, revising and updating protocols and policies it would then roll out at other airports. Twenty years later, the TSA has grown from one airport and 100 employees to a presence in 430 airports and more than 60,000 employees.

That’s not to say the TSA has been without its issues.

An undercover sting by the Department of Homeland Security in 2015 revealed that in 70 different instances at seven major airports, TSA agents failed to find fake explosives and weapons 67 times. That included one strapped to the back of one of the undercover investigators.