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Federal News Radio
Airport
security: What’s not to like?
By Mike Causey
May 19, 2016
Federal workers are probably some of the most frequent fliers in
America. Scientists going to conferences, air marshals who fly a lot,
inspectors, congressional staffers, diplomats. At any given time, 67
percent of the State Department’s Foreign Service officers are
overseas, and two-thirds spend most of their careers outside the U.S.
While most Americans think of diplomats as working one long cocktail
circuit, the facts are different. Right now over 1,000 FS members are
serving in dangerous, high-risk posts where they can’t take — and
probably wouldn’t want to take — spouses or children. (Since 9/11, 28
FS members have died in the line of duty overseas). Another group of
frequent federal flyers.
Many people, maybe most who fly a little or a lot, think the
Transportation Security Administration is broken. The problem is
finding an acceptable, some would say politically correct solution. If
there is one. To avoid profiling, random checks have been deemed
necessary, even if it means frisking an 80-year-old woman who uses a
walker.
I have three friends (one a relative) who travel. A lot. One worked in
Mexico City for two years with frequent trips back to D.C. More
recently, he spent a couple of years in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Flying out
of Dulles airport would have been faster for him (in time in the air)
but he preferred Reagan National even though it meant stopovers in
Miami and or Panama City. The lines at Dulles were so long, and slow,
he said, he made better time and had better flights flying out of the
national (as opposed to international) airport.
Another friend, with lots of friends who are air marshals, complains
about long lines too. He’s learned many of the tricks of the trade but
still dreads the ground time prior to takeoff.
The third person, a retired Foreign Service officer, says we should
look at how the Israelis do it. While they don’t have the passenger
volume or manpower we do, they assume they are targeted at all times.
Yet their track record is very, very good. Are their people better
trained? Do they have some secret equipment? Not that she knows of, and
she knows the Middle East better than most of us. She says their
screeners are trained and tested until many can sense when something
isn’t right. The JDLR instinct of many veteran street cops:
Just-Don’t-Look-Right.
“If we could find a way to utilize that kind of instinct acquired
partially through training” foot traffic at airports might move much
quicker. She suggested better pay and more intensive training for TSA
personnel. The agency now has one of the highest turnover rates in
government. And unlike the experience of many postal clerks or others
who come into direct contact with the public, TSA screeners often have
some very bad days and encounters with “I-pay-your-salary” customers.
Even better, happier, better paid, better trained TSA people might make
things even safer with less hassle at the airport. Maybe somebody
should ask frequent fliers for their input.
Any frequent flyers out there?
Read this and other articles at Federal News Radio
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