"Screeners taking their skills on road trip - to Washington"

Thursday, January 20, 2005 

Screeners taking their skills on road trip - to Washington 
By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer

 
HEBRON - Kimberly Reeser had never flown until earlier this week and had
never been through an airport security checkpoint as a passenger.

But considering her mission, she is more than willing to put up with any
flak thrown her way by co-workers.

Reeser is a screener for the Transportation Security Administration at the
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and one of 10 female
screeners selected to fly to Washington, D.C., to help the Secret Service
with today's inauguration. Two locally based TSA managers also went.

The local contingent, which left early Tuesday, is the largest from any
airport, say officials with the agency. It is sending a total of 200
screeners for the event.

"I'm really excited to be able to get to go somewhere instead of asking
everyone where they were going or to tell them to have a nice trip," said
Reeser, who began her career with the TSA in August 2002. "And I'm actually
looking forward to being harassed by my co-workers."

The Secret Service is basically turning downtown Washington into one big
"sterile" area - aviation security lingo for an area where all people have
been screened for weapons and other banned items. The Secret Service plans
15 checkpoints around downtown.

The agency sent out a call for more screeners, especially women who can do
pat-downs on other women. Of the 200 screeners heading to Washington, 167
are women.

Secret Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry would not say exactly what the TSA
screeners would be doing, citing security concerns.

Paul Wisniewski, who heads the local TSA operation, said the Cincinnati
contingent was selected on past performance, seniority and appearance.

"We had 85 volunteers for this assignment, so you can see how popular it
was," said Wisniewski. "And while it is an honor, it's going to be a lot of
work - they'll probably screen more people there in one day than we do here
in a week total."

Margie Denton is a one-year TSA screener from Union. "This will probably be
a lot more hands-on than what we normally do," Denton said.

Tyree Spurlock, a Hamilton resident with TSA since 2002, said a lot of her
co-workers "were bummed out not to be selected."

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said. "Not that I expect to
be seeing much of the event, but I've never been to an inauguration."


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