GLOBE EDITORIAL
Holes in airport screeningCONGRESS IS warming itself up for a new battle over whether airport screeners should be federal or private employees. But the real problem is that screeners are using machines that are nowhere near as sensitive as they should be. Before lawmakers do another round of big government vs. little government, they should provide a dose of good government by improving the equipment. They should also get the Transportation Security Administration to tighten up the hiring and body screening of airport employees.
When it was discovered after 9/11 that airport security screeners were often paid less than fast food workers, had high turnover, and got virtually no training, Congress created a federal agency to handle screening. Knee-jerk opponents of expanding government fought the TSA, but majorities in both houses insisted that screening is too important to be left to for-profit security firms. The TSA continues to be a whipping boy of critics, including Republican Representative John Mica of Florida, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. Mica wants to return screening to private firms, with the TSA setting policy, doing audits, and conducting background checks of applicants. In April Mica criticized the TSA when the agency's investigators found that its screeners were missing substantial numbers of dangerous test objects. But according to the TSA, screeners at five airports that are still allowed to use privately hired personnel did no better. The solution is to provide detection machines as sensitive as those, for instance, that are in use at the Capitol and the White House and in many foreign airports.
The TSA has other challenges as well. A study by the General Accounting Office released this week found gaps in the screening of both permanent and temporary airport workers, including some with access to runways. The TSA should also insist on the screening of the commercial cargo that passenger planes carry in their holds. The vast majority of it gets no inspection at all, with the airlines relying on a "known shipper" system. Aviation security will never be perfect, but the flying public has a right to expect much better than it is getting. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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