"U.S. Airport Workers Will Now Be Screened"

Thursday, July 8, 2004

Airport Shop Workers Must Pass Checkpoints 
TSA Orders Security Expansion 
By Greg Schneider
The Washington (DC) Post


The Transportation Security Administration has ordered airports to send
all vendor employees through security checkpoints before letting them go
to work in restaurants or shops in the secure areas of terminals. 
 
The agency had resisted congressional calls for such a requirement, with
TSA acting administrator David M. Stone arguing as recently as March
that extensive background checks were sufficient to catch untrustworthy
employees. 

Many airports already screen some workers but complain that requiring
the practice could cause further delays at crowded checkpoints and
interfere with each airport's managing of its own resources. 

But the TSA issued three security directives Tuesday evening that
require airports to come up with a plan to screen all employees going
into secure areas and to limit the number of doorways that provide
access to "sterile" zones. The plans must be submitted to the TSA for
approval within 30 days, airport officials said. 

A TSA spokesman declined to comment on the specific directives, which
are considered sensitive and not for public release. But agency
spokesman Mark Hatfield Jr. said in an e-mailed statement that the
agency "continually analyzes threat information and evaluates the system
of security layers we have placed at our nation's airports. . . . As
part of these newly issued security directives, the TSA will require
enhanced background checks and improved access control for airport
employees working in restricted areas." 

Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), who has pushed the TSA to take such
action, said yesterday he was pleased with the directives. 

"It's a good step," said DeFazio, who raised the issue 16 months ago
after visiting a Detroit airport and witnessing vendor employees going
in and out of the sterile zone without passing through security
checkpoints. Even though all such workers are required to pass criminal
background checks, DeFazio worries that they could be bribed to carry
weapons into terminals and slip them to passengers who have already gone
through airport metal detectors. 

"There's not a downside to adding this level of security, except some
possible delays or inconvenience until they get the screener workforce
level sorted out," DeFazio said. 

TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said passenger delays should be minimal
because airports have already designed their work schedules so that
worker shift changes occur at off-peak travel times to avoid clogging
checkpoints. 

Baltimore-Washington International Airport already requires employees to
go through checkpoints before entering the secure part of the terminal,
a spokesman said. Some workers at Reagan National and Dulles
International airports pass through checkpoints on their way into the
terminal, but not all, said a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan
Washington Airports Authority. 

Some airports are concerned about employees who must go back and forth
from secure to non-secure areas several times during the day, and
whether they have to stop each time for screening, said Carter Morris,
vice president for transportation security policy for the American
Association of Airport Executives. 

He said that his group has been discussing the issue for several months
with the TSA and congressional staffers and that flexibility is key to
making the directives work -- especially during the peak summer travel
season. "It's something that is going to very definitely need to be
worked out on an airport-by-airport basis," Morris said.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************