"Balking At The TSA: New security regulations have some airlines concerned safety is being sacrificed"

Monday, December 13, 2004 Issue

Balking At The TSA
New security regulations have some airlines concerned safety is being
sacrificed
By SALLY B. DONNELLY
Time Magazine

 
The uniformed screeners from the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) have become familiar sights to air travelers across the country. But
not all airport officials are happy to have them around. Nevada's Elko
Regional Airport last week became the first airport in the country to apply
to get rid of TSA screeners altogether and return to private employees. The
airport, which handles just 15 flights a day, has 14 screeners. Elko
director Cris Jensen said there were no problems with the government
screeners, but he feels his airport can do the same job more efficiently by
better matching its personnel with demand. Dozens of other small airports
are expected to apply for a similar exemption in the coming weeks. 

The nation's airlines, meanwhile, are bridling under a new directive from
the TSA that takes effect this week. In what the TSA says is an effort to
gather all security information in a central clearinghouse to track trends,
the agency is demanding that carriers "immediately" report to the TSA each
incident that could be considered a security threat. The airlines already
report security concerns to the TSA. But they say that being forced to
report even minor incidents-and first to the TSA rather than the FBI, which
has both the legal jurisdiction to handle crimes aboard aircraft and more
experienced aviation-security agents-is unnecessary and will add delays.
"The TSA has no idea what they are getting into," says one airline-industry
source. "The airlines get thousands of crank calls a year, and there are
thousands more disruptive passengers who turn out to be drunks, not
terrorists." Ken Maxwell, a former counterterrorism official who is now vice
president of security for JetBlue Airways, says he is "very concerned" that
the new TSA rules will hinder security. 

The TSA says the move is part of an ongoing effort to refine its system for
dealing with potential security threats. "It is important that concerns be
shared quickly," says Mark Hatfield, a TSA spokesman, "and the TSA is the
agency responsible for the security of the entire transportation system." 


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