Ever notice how no two airports handle security exactly the same?
It's on purpose.
Sam Bucy with the Transportation Safety Administration said his agency doesn't want would-be terrorists to know precisely what to expect when going through any of the country's 425 commercial airports.
The lack of continuity "is by design," Bucy said at a security update meeting Friday for alumni of Leadership Huntsville-Madison County.
Bucy said TSA workers at Huntsville International Airport perform "self tests" on the way they do their jobs, and outside testers check them, too. They also evaluate their passenger screening process about every six months, "just to make sure it still makes sense."
Also speaking at the meeting was Todd Hutto, with Redstone Arsenal's garrison commander's office. He was asked to address what security changes the arsenal is planning when 4,700 new federal jobs move here from the Washington, D.C., area over the next few years.
Hutto asked the leadership alumni to think back to when the arsenal had open gates and drivers could come and go as they needed. Then Sept. 11 happened, and security kicked into high gear.
In the weeks after the terrorist attacks, "it took some (arsenal workers) three hours to get through the gates."
The bottleneck was fixed, but Hutto said the arsenal "will never have open gates again in our lifetime."
Hutto said he didn't want to make anyone paranoid, but he did want to encourage "situational awareness," meaning that people should be alert at all times to conditions that seem somehow off.
"We're not looking to change the American way of life," he said, "but to protect it."
