A Study of Federal Airport Security

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

A Study of Federal Airport Security

July 1, 2003
 By JOE SHARKEY 




 

In the roughly 18 months since the federal Transportation
Security Administration took over passenger screening at
the nation's 429 commercial airports, many frequent fliers
have collected tales of silliness, rudeness and apparent
ineptness as they pass through security checkpoints.

But John Bace remembers how much worse security sometimes
was before the agency arrived to replace privately
employed, poorly paid security screeners with 55,000
better-paid, better-trained federal employees.

The anecdote that he cites happened in the fall of 2001,
shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when National
Guard troops carrying rifles were stationed just inside
airport security zones.

"As I was waiting in line to go through the screening
myself, several Guardsmen were permitted to cut to the
front of the line as they were about to take their place on
the other side of the magnetometers," recalled Mr. Bace, a
research director at Gartner Inc. in Chicago.

What happened next astonished him. One by one, the men
placed their loaded M-16 rifles and their pistols on the
conveyer belt, sending them through the X-ray machine to be
scanned, and then meekly walked past the security guards to
retrieve the weapons. "I started to say, `But why?' " Mr.
Bace said. "But a sergeant just said, `Don't ask. They were
told everything had to be scanned.' The look on his face
said it all to me: `You just have to pass through here. I
stay here and work with these people.' "

Today, airport security continues to take heat from many
sides. Passengers gripe about shoe searches and pat-downs
of elderly women. Members of Congress and officials in the
aviation industry denounce the agency as a bureaucratic
money pit (it spent nearly $6 billion in the 2002 fiscal
year) that is largely unaccountable to legislative
oversight. Airport managers and outside security experts
say the public, which sees only the heavy uniformed
presence at passenger checkpoints, would be shocked at
gaping security holes in air cargo and baggage handling
areas, not to mention at sea ports and borders.

<snip>

Business travelers, focused on convenience, he said, are
more likely to complain about that than leisure travelers.

"I hear from frequent flyers all the time about how their
dear, sainted grandma was frisked," Mr. Brancatelli said.
"But I never hear from the grandmas complaining about the
frisking." 

But security needs to pay attention to grandma, Mr.
Brancatelli said. "Does anyone think a bunch of
Arab-looking guys named Mohammad are going to try to hijack
a plane?" he asked. "If they try again, they will look like
Mrs. Doubtfire. These guys are a lot of things, but they
ain't stupid. The next time will be different. Who's to say
they won't be dressed like the executive vice president of
I.B.M., or that they won't plant the stuff in some
toddler's diaper?" 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/01/business/01SECU.html?ex=1058176261&ei=1&en
=764769cf39cc762d


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