"Air marshals' changes on fast track"

Friday, May 7, 2004

Air marshals' changes on fast track
New procedures to protect officers to be in place by August
By LARRY SANDLER
The Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel


New procedures to protect the identity of undercover air marshals should be
in place nationwide by August, the chief of the Federal Air Marshals Service
said Thursday.
 
That apparently would end the practice of escorting air marshals up the exit
rows at airport screening checkpoints, a procedure that the undercover
officers believe exposes their identities.

Thomas Quinn, director of the air marshals service, said his agency was
working with the Transportation Security Administration on unspecified
changes to give air marshals "greater access to secure areas and less public
exposure."

Also, as of Tuesday, air marshals no longer will have to sign logbooks at
checkpoints, Quinn said.

The Journal Sentinel reported Monday that TSA procedures forced air marshals
and other armed plainclothes law enforcement officers to show their
identification and sign their names in view of other passengers. Sen. Herb
Kohl (D-Wis.) called on Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to deal with
the issue.

Quinn said he issued a memo changing logbook procedures Tuesday - one day
after the Journal Sentinel's article and one day before Quinn met with Kohl.

Nonetheless, Quinn said, the changes in checkpoint procedures had been
planned for some time and did not come in response to the news coverage or
the complaints of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which
has been pressing the issue for at least six months.

The changes will apply only to air marshals and not to other federal agents
flying armed, Quinn said.

Quinn said changes in the way air marshals move through checkpoints will
start within 30 days and will be completed within 60 to 90 days, because of
the complexity of changing procedures at 429 airports with different
layouts.

Kohl plans to monitor how the changes are implemented, particularly at
Mitchell International Airport, Kohl spokeswoman Lynn Becker said.

More changes possible

In the long run, Quinn said, he wanted to work with the TSA to establish a
universal pass that air marshals could use to bypass security checkpoints at
every airport nationwide. That issue, however, is particularly complicated
because of the number of different security systems in place across the
country, he said.

Airport and airline workers now have badges that let them bypass screening
checkpoints. Air marshals have such badges only for their home airports, not
for the airports they fly into, Quinn said.

Amy von Walter, a TSA spokeswoman in Minneapolis, confirmed that her agency
was discussing universal passes with the air marshals service.

The law enforcement association, which provides lobbying and legal
representation for federal agents who can't form unions, also has pushed for
the universal pass.

But Quinn said the group had confused the issue by calling it a "trusted
agent" program, a label that actually refers to how air marshals board
planes rather than how they pass through checkpoints.

In December, air marshals won "trusted agent" status from the Federal
Aviation Administration, Quinn said. That allows air marshals, like FAA
inspectors, to board airliners before all crew members are aboard, he said.

Air marshals had complained that boarding just a few minutes before other
passengers made them too obvious. Kohl said the change gave air marshals
more flexibility to board whenever they wish.

In the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, air marshals reported
problems with airline or airport personnel 381 times, representing 18% of
all incidents on their missions, the U.S. General Accounting Office said in
a November 2003 report to Congress. Many incidents involved boarding,
screening and check-in procedures, auditors said.

Quinn said such incidents "have been reduced significantly," and in any
event represented a "very, very small number" of the tens of thousands of
missions.

In related developments:

Aviation security critic Joseph Gutheinz said Thursday that his statements
earlier this week about how armed federal agents identify themselves to each
other and to flight crews - and inadvertently to passengers - did not
necessarily apply to air marshals. David Adams, spokesman for the air
marshals service, had denied Wednesday that air marshals followed the
procedures outlined by Gutheinz, a former federal agent.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) called on the Senate Appropriations Committee to
provide money for a program that would let police officers, firefighters and
emergency medical technicians quietly register with airlines to help out in
case of emergencies on their flights.

At A Glance
 
Thomas Quinn, director of the air marshals service, said the changes in
checkpoint procedures had been planned for some time and did not come in
response to the news coverage or the complaints of the Federal Law
Enforcement Officers Association, which has been pressing the issue for at
least six months. 


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