Jane-DoH
12th Jan 2011, 01:34
Airports Consider Using Private Security Screeners : NPR (http://www.npr.org/2011/01/11/132748544/airports-consider-using-private-security-screeners)
Following the furor over invasive airport security screenings and personal pat-downs, some airports are now considering replacing government security screeners with private companies.
It's a step the new chairman of the House Transportation Committee has been urging the nation's airports to take. But it's not clear travelers would notice much of a difference.
The Kansas City International Airport is one of 17 in the United States where the screeners work for private contractors, not the Transportation Security Administration.
The airport's director, Mark VanLoh, is expecting to be busy this winter: "I will be giving a lot of tours in the next few months from airports all over the country coming to Kansas City to check us out."
Using private contractors does make a difference, VanLoh says.
"In my opinion, these contract employees — they're not federal employees; they're not guaranteed a job for life," he says. "If they don't meet the performance goals or maybe they're consistently rude, or maybe they miss objects that go through the machine, they are terminated. I can't remember how easy that would be to do with a federal employee. I don't think it is."
I don't get it -- I thought the whole purpose of TSA was to help connect the dots?
Following the furor over invasive airport security screenings and personal pat-downs, some airports are now considering replacing government security screeners with private companies.
It's a step the new chairman of the House Transportation Committee has been urging the nation's airports to take. But it's not clear travelers would notice much of a difference.
The Kansas City International Airport is one of 17 in the United States where the screeners work for private contractors, not the Transportation Security Administration.
The airport's director, Mark VanLoh, is expecting to be busy this winter: "I will be giving a lot of tours in the next few months from airports all over the country coming to Kansas City to check us out."
Using private contractors does make a difference, VanLoh says.
"In my opinion, these contract employees — they're not federal employees; they're not guaranteed a job for life," he says. "If they don't meet the performance goals or maybe they're consistently rude, or maybe they miss objects that go through the machine, they are terminated. I can't remember how easy that would be to do with a federal employee. I don't think it is."
I don't get it -- I thought the whole purpose of TSA was to help connect the dots?