I have just been reading another story about a disabled person who alledges that the tools he needed to repair his wheelchair were taken off him by security at the weekend. He subsequently missed his flight, the airport has apologised and are making a payment to a local charity in lieu of compensation at his request.
What strikes me about this story and the posting from another passenger very recently is that in both cases, the security personnel were not prepared to listen to explanations, to think for a minute that these passengers might be telling the truth. Just listen for a few minutes. They just went straight to authority mode. Herein lies a problem because due to pay, terms and conditions, the wrong type of people might be recruited for these posts, people who are not able to use discretion or common sense. Although lack of common sense is a major problem now.
Another point strikes me. It is the airport that ends up with the very bad publicity, not ICTS. I understand fully why the airport has contracted out this work, but like many airports are now finding out, it is causing more problems that it solves. At a time or near full employment, these types of working contracts will attract no loyalty from employees and why should it. So the airport will just have more and more bad press as this situation escalates. At some point the airport might have to take security in house again and offer a better employment contract to attract and keep the quality staff. This is a problem for all airports and this might be the start of the death throws of out sourcing. However, we are all to blame. We don't want to pay that £1 to drop off or pick someone up. We want to fly to Spain for £20-30. If we want a better airport experience, then we will have to accept higher charges. However, if we are paying higher charges, then airports have to deliver, not put the extra revenue in their pockets. Lots of issues, what are the answers?