Airport security: What’s not to like?

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?

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

According to Van Halen singer David Lee Roth, the song “Panama” is about a car.

Source: Wikipedia

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