In a year the FAM force has increased from some 50 officers to an estimate of 6000 with more to come.
These people are green, untried and mostly inexperienced. They have been given a tough job with little practical training. Some FAMS I spoke to had only been given hands on training on a 727 fuselage, really useful these days. They had never actually practiced their business in ANY wide body two aisle aircraft. Other FAMS had never been shown the security door locking arrangement. They had no idea how the cockpit door was secured from the inside. They were clearly very grateful when I gave them a tour of the cockpit area - HELL they did not even know about the location of the crash axe!
The officers were mainly drafted from various other federal agencies. I am sure most are truly dedicated. but the programme seems to have suffered from rapid expansion.