The daunting task of airport security
John Magaw had barely finished decorating his executive suite — at a cost of $400,000 to the taxpayers — when he stepped down last week as head of the new Transportation Security Administration.
Hardly a tear was shed upon news of his sudden departure. In only seven months on the job, Magaw managed to alienate airport operators, the airlines, the pilots’ unions and the flight attendants’ union. He also managed to get himself on the bad side of lawmakers on Capitol Hill and his boss, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.
Magaw might have survived all of this had his startup agency been making the kind of progress President Bush and Congress expected when they created the TSA last winter in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. But it was abundantly clear by last week that Magaw simply was unable to take on the formidable task of growing the TSA into an agency that would provide world-class security at the nation’s 429 commercial airports. At least, not by the Congress’ set deadlines — including turning over the airport screener force by Nov. 19 and screening all checked bags for explosives by Dec. 31.
Enter James Loy, who has been serving as the TSA’s second-in-command since June, after retiring as U.S. Coast Guard commandant. The White House has selected him to replace Magaw. What Loy needs is a comprehensive plan for transforming the nation’s airport security system from mediocre to the very best in the world.
The plan should begin with replacing the current screener force, the 28,000 or so low-wage, undereducated workers who have been imprudently entrusted with clearing passengers and baggage for boarding commercial flights. It is because many if not most screeners are being asked to perform beyond their level of competence (roughly a quarter of the force are high school drop-outs) that they have fared so woefully in undercover security tests. Indeed, as recently as last month, the TSA confirmed, screeners at 32 of the nation’s largest airports failed to detect guns and bombs in nearly a quarter of tests. And the ersatz firearms and explosives were not stealthily concealed the way a terrorist would. Rather, undercover investigators packed them in bags the way a typical passenger would.
Congress approved a considerably higher pay scale — up to $40,000 a year — for the new federalized screener force. That should enable the TSA to recruit far more competent, far more professional, personnel. And that new screener force needs the very best technology at its disposal, including the 900 explosives detection systems and the 5,800 trace machines that the TSA has ordered from Boeing Service Company. A little further down the line, TSA should install body scanners — modified X-ray machines that can see through clothing and can detect ceramic knives, plastic explosives and other such dangerous items.
Finally, the computerized profiling system used to flag certain passengers for additional scrutiny needs to be refined. Right now it takes into account a passenger’s travel history, how the person paid for his or her ticket, whether the air passenger is traveling one-way or round-trip and other “classified” factors.
But we know the profile of the individuals who committed the Sept. 11 terror attacks. They were young, foreign-born, Arabic-looking Muslim men with detectable accents. If an air passenger fits that profile, he should be prepared to answer a few questions, to get wanded down for weapons, to have his baggage hand-checked.
Let us hope Loy acquits himself far better than his predecessor.
(Joseph Perkins is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and can be reached at [email protected].)