TSA tests employee screening techniques - tightening things up?

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is about to launch a series of tests, pilot programs at seven airports across the country designed to develop techniques to better screen not passengers, but airport employees.

Airports where TSA will be piloting new projects include: Boston Logan International (BOS); Denver International (DEN); Jacksonville International (JAX); Kansas City International (MCI); Eugene, OR (EUG); Southwest Oregon Regional (OTH) in North Bend, OR; and Craven Regional (EWN) in New Bern, NC. That's a wide swath, geographically, and in terms of airport size. North Bend has just three daily flights, all of them Horizon Air propjets to Portland (PDX).

Among the techniques TSA will pilot is 100 percent perimeter screening at Boston Logan (BOS). Biometric access controls will come into play here; 100 percent physical employee screening at Jacksonville, when employees go from public areas to secure areas; and behavioral detection efforts at Eugene.

Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator, asserts: “These pilot [programs] will give us important information as we evaluate the best way to secure the operations side of the airport.”

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler

Comments

[TinaH]

Let's hope this time the agency is more strict in its policies. I work at one of the busiest airports in the nation, and although airport employees are screened every time they pass the security checkpoints, they do have some special considerations that, in my opinion, should not be allowed.

For example, why a flight attendant on a pleasure flight is allowed to have all the liquids that she wants? If she is not working, she should be submitted to the same regulations as everybody else.