Think you have the answer to how to close a gap in airport security?
Employee screening is under scrutiny after the arrest of a Delta baggage handler in Atlanta. The now-former employee stands accused of working with a former Delta employee to smuggle guns onto airplanes headed for New York.
We thought improved background checks would be the best bet.
“The current state of background investigations for airport employees is really a glaring vulnerability,” said Sean M. Bigley, a lawyer who specializes in security clearances and investigations, to the New York Times in an article published after the arrest of a baggage handler and an ex-employee of an airline who are charged with smuggling hundreds of guns onboard flights over an eight month period.
“Most people are under the erroneous impression that someone with an access badge to a secure area to an airport has undergone an extensive background investigation. That is not the case.”
Bigley suggests that such workers undergo the same kinds of background checks as federal employees.
Sounds good – until we learned that in 2011, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent – and federal employee – pleaded guilty to a federal charge of trying to smuggle guns at ATL onto a flight to resell them to a drug cartel by “using his badge to bypass security,” according to prosecutors.
EASY ACCESS
The problem of easy access to secure sections of airports by employees who do not go through the kind of screening that passengers do is widespread and has been known for years, added a retired American Airline captain to the Times in the same article.
“It’s not just Atlanta, which is now taking all the heat,” said G. Bruce Hedlund. “It’s all airports. There’s always a way for people to come and go with access just by swiping an ID card.”
To that end, the Transportation Security Administration is considering additional security measures for airport and airline employees.
The new measures could include:
- enhanced airline-employee screenings;
- random security check;
- and additional TSA and law enforcement patrols in secure airport areas.
The Aviation Security Advisory Committee has also been asked to review the security of airports nationwide to identify all potential ways the Department of Homeland Security can address airport security vulnerabilities.
NO EASY ANSWER
Of course, there’s no one easy answer that could stop any employee from taking advantage of a security clearance. And the big problem remains, however, about who would pay for it. Without federal appropriations of tax dollars, the TSA couldn’t afford to broaden its current role, and airports and airlines likely would object strongly to the added costs.
