Feds take over airport screening By Blake Morrison, USA TODAY When thousands of newly trained government workers take responsibility for= =20 screening passengers and carry-on bags at airports across the nation=20 Tuesday, the agency that oversees the workers promises top-notch security=20 and world-class customer service. But will this group of airport screeners= =20 =97 better paid, better dressed and with far more training than the workers= =20 they're replacing =97 really be any better than their predecessors? Aviation= =20 security analysts say the answer might not be known for months, but it is=20 already clear that very few of the pre-Sept. 11 screeners qualified for=20 federal service. Only 15% of the screeners now on duty are holdovers from=20 the private firms previously responsible for airport security. Much depends on the new screeners and their ability to catch and deter=20 terrorists. "Our national security is at stake, and on a smaller level, the= =20 economic health of the airlines is at stake," says Jack Plaxe, an aviation= =20 security consultant. Plaxe and other analysts warn that appearances alone=20 mean little. Some even worry that the new emphasis on customer service will= =20 distract screeners from their primary role: keeping potential weapons and=20 terrorists off flights. Confidential documents obtained by USA TODAY=20 suggest the new screeners, already in place at hundreds of airports, are=20 catching some prohibited items. On Saturday, for instance, a screener at=20 Miami International Airport detected a loaded semiautomatic handgun that a= =20 passenger tried to hide in a DVD player, a government spokesman said. The=20 passenger, a Haitian national, was arrested. But problems remain. Last week at Miami, two travelers apparently slipped=20 past a government screener and entered a concourse through an exit lane.=20 Hours later, another screener there may have fallen asleep at a checkpoint.= =20 The initial breach prompted officials to evacuate five concourses. Such=20 episodes underscore the need for rigorous undercover testing, aviation=20 security analysts say. In Miami, supervisors responded swiftly. "But how=20 much is getting by them that they don't know about?" asks Billie Vincent,=20 former security director of the Federal Aviation Administration. After the= =20 attacks Sept. 11, Congress created the Transportation Security=20 Administration (TSA) and gave it until Tuesday to replace the private=20 screeners with government employees. Many thought the task was impossible.= =20 But since February, the TSA has scrambled to hire and train almost 40,000=20 workers to operate metal detectors and X-ray equipment at more than 400=20 airports nationwide. Perhaps most surprising: The agency essentially started from scratch. Only= =20 about 6,000 of the new hires had worked for the handful of private firms=20 that had overseen airport checkpoints for years. The rest of the screeners= =20 are fresh recruits. On Friday, a federal judge in Los Angeles allowed nine former screeners who= =20 are not U.S. citizens to reapply for jobs at Los Angeles International and= =20 San Francisco International airports while their lawsuit is pending. The=20 screeners are trying to overturn a federal requirement that all screeners=20 be U.S. citizens. Former screeners at Portland (Ore.) International Airport= =20 filed a federal lawsuit this month claiming they were not given a fair=20 chance at the new jobs. Job's now 'something more' But TSA spokesman Robert Johnson says many former screeners weren't cut out= =20 for the new job. "We weren't trying to recreate the screener position of=20 old," Johnson says. The job "is something more than it was before." Some=20 travelers already have noticed a difference. That's because the TSA began=20 gradually replacing the private screeners in April. At scores of airports,= =20 government workers now have been on the job for months. Travelers generally= =20 say the new workers are more attentive, engaging and professional than=20 those they replaced. Whether those early reviews mean the new screeners=20 also are finding guns and knives more often than their predecessors did is= =20 another matter altogether. For years, tests by the Transportation=20 Department's inspector general and by the FAA showed widespread failures by= =20 screeners. Even after Sept. 11, undercover tests in June showed screeners=20 employed by the private firms still failed to detect fake weapons almost a= =20 quarter of the time. Today, some problems remain. Documents obtained by USA TODAY show the sort= =20 of hiccups officials say are consistent with the transition from private to= =20 government screeners. A TSA report, marked "security sensitive" and dated=20 Nov. 6, for instance, illustrates the challenge. TSA officials emptied a=20 Delta Airlines terminal at New York's LaGuardia Airport after new screeners= =20 failed to find a knife even though its image appeared on an X-ray machine=20 screen. The report says the knife apparently was in a pocket of a jacket=20 belonging to a Delta employee who sent it through the machine. The image=20 remained on the screen after the employee had taken his coat and entered=20 the terminal. According to the report, "the screener (male) who saw the=20 image was replacing another screener (female) at that station." The knife=20 "was the last image displayed when the male screener got in position at the= =20 X-ray." The report says screeners could not find the knife or the Delta=20 employee. The daily log from that day also shows successes. A TSA screener at=20 Lambert-St. Louis International Airport spotted a 4-inch knife in a=20 passenger's carry-on bag. Two hours later, a screener at Lambert also=20 spotted a 3 1/2-inch knife in another passenger's carry-on. TSA spokesman=20 Johnson says a new regimen of undercover tests the agency has started shows= =20 its screeners have done "pretty good" at stopping potential weapons.=20 Johnson won't say what percentage of banned items is still getting past=20 security or how these tests were conducted. The reason: national security.= =20 "We would love to be able to issue report cards on ourselves to see how=20 we're doing, but that puts too much information out there," he says. "If=20 travelers were the only ones reading the news, then we would be able to=20 share it all. Unfortunately, the difficulty is separating the travelers=20 from the terrorists." Some aviation analysts remain skeptical. They don't trust the TSA to=20 provide an impartial assessment of screeners it trained. Others say it's=20 unfair to draw conclusions until these screeners have been on the job for=20 more than a few weeks. "The reality is, it's going to take a certain amount of time, and the=20 public won't see the full benefit of this for six to 12 months," says=20 Charlie Zain, who trained screeners for private security firm Huntleigh USA= =20 and now works as a consultant with the TSA. Among the new generation of=20 screeners are former police officers, airline workers and members of the=20 military. Others come from backgrounds that seem wholly unrelated to=20 aviation security. Karen Jackson, 36, worked as a postal clerk; Christina=20 Hammer, 35, is a former day care provider; Sharlene Jackson, 43, designed=20 quilts; and Vincintz Gagarin, 32, used to be the night manager at a hotel.= =20 None aspired to be an airport screener. Now, they all work at Washington's= =20 Reagan National Airport, where security =97 given the airport's proximity to= =20 the White House and Capitol =97 is perhaps the most pronounced. Although today's screeners can make as much as $35,400 a year (private=20 firms often paid minimum wage), the new recruits say they applied for other= =20 reasons. For Gagarin, "it was time to get off the sidelines" and help fight= =20 the war on terrorism. "Everybody has pretty much taken this job to heart,"= =20 says Gagarin, a screening supervisor who started at National Airport in=20 September. Even those most skeptical about whether screening will improve=20 notice the change in attitude. In the past, screeners seemed disinterested.= =20 And the turnover rate rivaled that of fast food chains. Now, workers talk= =20 of making screening a career. And they smile and greet each passenger.=20 That's all by design, agency spokesman Johnson says. The TSA wants workers= =20 to take pride in their jobs, and decent pay and good benefits are a must,=20 he says. But the agency also closely scrutinized the more than 1.6 million=20 applicants. Among the qualities most crucial: integrity and honesty;=20 observation skills; stress tolerance; motivation; gathering and analyzing=20 information; reading and mathematics skills; decision-making and judgment.= =20 Applicants were asked to lift and move objects as heavy as 40 lbs., and=20 identify by touch items inside a box. In addition, officials tested=20 hearing, eyesight and color perception. "None of that was done before,"=20 Johnson says. "Now, it's all done before you get hired." A customer-service focus During training =97 44 hours in the classroom and 60 hours on the job =97= the=20 TSA also stressed the need for screeners to move passengers quickly through= =20 security. Last year, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta set a goal of=20 keeping passengers waiting no longer than 10 minutes to pass through metal= =20 detectors. "There's a lot of discussion on treating others how you would=20 like to be treated," says Elmer Nelson, a manager at Lockheed Martin, the=20 company hired to train screeners. "You can be very efficient but polite."=20 That focus on customer-service troubles Bob Monetti, whose son was killed=20 when a bomb planted by terrorists brought down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.=20 "Screeners are being instructed not to be diligent," Monetti says. "They're= =20 being instructed to look up and see how long the line is, and if it's long,= =20 to go faster. If you have a guy who's guarding the bank, but he thinks his= =20 job is to hold the door open for everybody, then he's lost his primary=20 focus." Vincent, the former FAA security director, agrees. Although he=20 expects the new screeners to be better than their predecessors, he isn't=20 convinced that they've been trained well enough. In the past, the FAA=20 required 12 hours of training. Vincent favors at least 300 hours. "I am=20 impressed by the overwhelming indoctrination in courtesy," he says. "I am=20 not as impressed as I should be in their skills in security." The TSA's Johnson says the dual mission won't compromise security.=20 "Obviously, we want to keep the line moving," he says, "but I think anyone= =20 who has traveled since the federal screeners have been put on the line=20 knows that when a bag (sets off) alarms, you're going to get the royal=20 treatment as far as searches go." That's not what Steve Elson found. A=20 former member of an FAA team that tested airport security, Elson quit the=20 agency in 1999. Since Sept. 11, he has worked with television and radio=20 reporters to assess screeners. Elson says he visited airports five times=20 with reporters who were carrying leaded film-shield bags in carry-ons.=20 Screeners using X-ray equipment can't see through the leaded bag. Still,=20 Elson says, he watched on more than 25 occasions when screeners failed to=20 look inside or beneath the leaded bag to check for weapons. Only four=20 screeners inspected the bags, Elson says. "These screeners are plentiful.=20 They're well-dressed, well-groomed and polite," he says. "But is screening= =20 any better today? No, no, no. It's just a far more expensive fa=E7ade of=20 security." TSA spokesman Johnson says the agency remains committed to=20 ongoing training for screeners. One system in use intermittently=20 superimposes images of knives and guns on X-ray images in order to keep=20 screeners alert. "We're dealing with people and machines and both of them=20 are not perfect," he says. "But every day we wake up and have successes and= =20 discover areas we need to do better. We're on a daily mission to prevent=20 the kind of thing that happened on 9/11 from happening again." The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (chgdev) http://www.chagdev.com/ (Chaguaramas Development Authority) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************