"DIA Official: Weapons making it to planes"

Monday, November 4, 2002

Official: Weapons making it to planes
By Brian Maass
The Denver (CO) Rocky Mountain News


Knives, mace, razor blades and other prohibited items are still making
it past the new federal security screeners at Denver International
Airport in "alarming" numbers, according to the federal government's top
security official at DIA. 

"To see one item get through alarms you," said William Pickle, regional
security director for the Transportation Security Administration, after
he reviewed confidential documents obtained by News4 that detail the
continuing security problems at DIA. 

"To see that many also is very much alarming," he said. 

Following last year's terrorist attacks, a national outcry led to the
formation of the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, which
hires and trains security screeners for the nation's airports. 

TSA has 750 screeners at DIA, staffing the north and south security
checkpoints in the main terminal and the checkpoint for Concourse A.
Eventually, TSA personnel will take over all DIA security. 

A News4 investigation obtained daily logs from eight days between Sept.
22 and Oct. 11. The logs were compiled by Wackenhut security screeners
working on the B Concourse. The documents outline items Wackenhut
screeners confiscated from passengers during secondary security
screening - random checks - at airport gates just before passengers
boarded planes. 

Most of the passengers had passed through TSA security at DIA, but some
had connected to flights at DIA after passing through security at other
airports. The documents reveal: 

. Oct. 5: Screeners on B Concourse reported finding 21 prohibited items
during random searches, including six knives, two screwdrivers, a
corkscrew and six pairs of scissors. 

. Oct. 6: Screeners confiscated 19 prohibited items from passengers
about to board planes, including four knives, one container of mace, one
container of pepper spray and a rusty screwdriver. 

. Oct. 11: Screeners confiscated seven knives, one listed as a large
knife. "He (the passenger) said he came through south (terminal
screening) and put knife in tray and it went through X-ray." Another
knife was listed as a "razor-blade knife." 

Asked if what was confiscated during random checks on just the B
Concourse suggest that many more potential weapons are making it on
planes, Pickle said "that's what concerns us." 

"There are problems at the airports," Pickle said. "People are still new
at these jobs and a lot of things have gotten through, no doubt about
it." 

Pickle added that with millions of people flying, some prohibited items
are bound to get through. 

"But the numbers are steadily declining," he said.


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