"Logan scanners will check job seekers"

Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Logan scanners will check job seekers
By Mac Daniel
The Boston (MA) Globe


Following five months of tests in the international terminal, Massport
officials yesterday announced that Logan Airport is about to become the
first in the nation to use expensive, high-tech scanners to check for
false documents among future job applicants.  

Massport officials also called on the Transportation Security
Administration to use the technology at passenger security checkpoints.
But TSA officials yesterday said the agency has no plans to install the
machines at the four airport security screening areas under its
supervision.

In February, 20 former Logan employees, including six former security
employees, were charged with falsifying documents that got them their
Massport jobs and allowed them access to some of the airport's
high-security areas. One of them, Sigifredo Martinez, 36, pleaded guilty
in US District Court yesterday to charges that he used false
identification to get his job. He faces up to five years in prison.

The Logan employees held a range of jobs, including refueling and
cleaning passenger jets, tending bathrooms, and staffing some security
points, though federal investigators said none of the workers posed a
security threat or had ties to terrorists. Some of the workers were
hired after producing false Social Security numbers or doctored green
cards.

The scanners, manufactured by Imaging Automation of Bedford, N.H., scan
passports, driver's licenses, green cards, and visas to determine
whether the documents are fake, have been doctored, or are expired. The
technology can also cross-reference computerized databanks to match the
photo and text against government watch lists of criminals or
terrorists.

During its trial run at Logan's international terminal earlier this
year, a Massport spokesman said, the identification scanning system,
which costs more than $60,000, detected 12 false or expired passports
from a total of 225,000 departing passengers. Authorities determined
that none of the people holding those false passports were security
threats, officials said. The test period ended in May and, other than
their new security role within Massport, the scanners are no longer in
use at the airport.

''We feel it has an added security benefit,'' said Massport spokesman
Jose Juves.

The airport is purchasing two of the identification scanning units, to
be used at the Massport office that issues airport badges, which is
overseen by the State Police. The two machines, with training and
installation expenses, will cost Massport $130,000, Juves said.

Job applicants at Logan must show two valid forms of identification,
which the new system will now authenticate.

The scanning system is one of several security changes at Logan in
recent weeks.

On Thursday, TSA is expected to assume control of a fifth checkpoint
leading to gates 37 and 38 in Terminal B, according to Massport
officials. In addition, TSA crews will now staff the airport's three
explosive-detection machines in place at the USAirways, American
Airlines, and Northwest Airlines terminals, beginning today.


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