Toward safer skies
Aviation security has improved since 9/11 but not by enough
Aviation security was once, to many, a joke. The airlines hired private companies to run checkpoint screening, but they offered such poor training and measly pay that the workforce provided merely a mirage of protection. Eventually there was a hefty price to pay. On Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers easily beat the system and brought about the most calamitous terrorist attack in American history.
Since that day, though, the government has focused hard on aviation security. The situation has unquestionably improved--$17 billion has been spent, screeners are now federal employees, and high-tech security equipment is planted in every airport. But troubling inconsistencies remain, and efforts to tighten the system further raise questions about what's possible, what's practical, what's affordable--even what's desirable.
The push to radically improve aviation security began just after the 9/11 attacks. On Nov. 19, 2001, President Bush signed the comprehensive Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created the Transportation Security Administration and set out a ream of tough deadlines and mandates. Chief among them: a federalized screener workforce and 100 percent baggage screening.
But "things are still very much in flux," says terror expert Roger Cressey, especially with the screener workforce. As the federalization program began, problems with completing thousands of background checks led the TSA to hire people who had criminal records. Covert tests of airport checkpoints done by the Government Accountability Office reported that a small number of knives and fake bombs still got past screeners. The Homeland Security Department's inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, recently reported that a pilot program testing the effectiveness of private screeners found that they performed as "poorly" as federal screeners.
Even the number of screeners has sparked debate. The Transportation Security Administration hired more than 55,000 workers, but the spree rankled some on Capitol Hill, including House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee Chairman Rep. Harold Rogers, who angrily capped the TSA workforce at 45,000. Today, TSA must still shuffle job slots between airports to keep pace with their changing needs and remain under the cap. The result has sometimes been chaos. This past summer, the combination of stormy weather and uneven staffing left steaming passengers in long lines--or even missing flights--at airports like Los Angeles International and Chicago's O'Hare. In the meantime, screeners from Newark to Seattle are working exhausting hours, fueling a rising burnout rate, warns TSA Administrator David Stone. One screener from Sacramento International Airport told U.S. News that her coworkers let some bags that seemed to warrant further scrutiny pass because of staffing shortages.
Some changes could come this fall, when airports will get the option of switching back to private security screeners operating under federal supervision. This so-called opt-out program was a deal struck to pass the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The rationale was to give airports more flexibility in how they run security while ensuring they meet federal standards. But confusion about how the opt-out program will work has most airports hesitating to sign on.
The government has also had trouble trying to broaden background checks on passengers; several 9/11 hijackers might have been identified by government watch lists but slipped through. The TSA began working on a new program, called Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening (CAPPS II), which would have had airlines check commercial databases to determine whether passengers pose a security risk. But opposition from travelers and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union brought that to a halt. The TSA recently announced a scaled-back program, Secure Flight, that will have government officials do the checking, and only against lists of known or suspected terrorists. It will very likely start appearing in airports in January.
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