"Editorial: If screeners go private, let standards be public"

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Editorial
If screeners go private, let standards be public
The Palm Beach (FL) Post


Airports expect 16.3 million Thanksgiving travelers, according to the Air
Transport Association, up from last year's record 15.9 million. So, how is
security these days?

More time-consuming. Flyers can expect more stringent screening procedures
that the government enacted this year. The Transportation Security
Administration will require passengers to remove coats before entering
checkpoints and will examine shoes more carefully. Ticket-holders should
arrive two hours before takeoff.
 
Airport directors will be using the holiday rush to assess further the
performance of federal screeners and decide whether to replace them with
private contractors. Last week, the government gave airports permission to
apply, with the transition to begin in May. The TSA still would supervise
the private screeners, who would be paid the same as federal workers and
still have to satisfy government requirements. A spokeswoman for Palm Beach
International Airport said privatization is "under review." A number of
airports are interested in making the change. They believe that private
companies won't be saddled with the inflexibility that comes with federal
bureaucracy and will be able to use workers more efficiently, especially
during peak travel periods. Critics say TSA's delays in background checks
and training have caused vacancies in the 45,000-member work force, leaving
some of the busiest airports understaffed.

Five airports use private screeners under a test program: San Francisco,
Kansas City, Rochester, N.Y., Tupelo, Miss.; and Jackson Hole, Wyo. All five
intend to keep them. The concern is that the movement toward privatization
will bring back some of the deficiencies that helped to make the 9/11
attacks possible. While it doesn't make sense to micromanage staffing at
Jackson Hole from Washington, government oversight and involvement is
necessary to keep standards uniform and high.

Advances in technology can bring significant improvements to security in the
relative short term. Last spring, a General Accounting Office report
criticized the TSA for not paying more attention to access at sensitive
areas and noted that employees aren't screened before entering runways. The
government announced last week that it will expand testing of a high-tech ID
system for airport workers. The biometric cards will allow the TSA to
confirm identities by matching fingerprints, hand prints or eye scans. The
agency wants to extend the program to all transportation and port workers,
which would mean as many as 6 million people.

The Department of Homeland Security reports that turnover among screeners is
22 percent, up from 15 percent. But pre-9/11, it was 100 percent among
private screeners. Going back to private can't mean going backward.


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