newarksmells
9th Jun 2003, 05:30
If this is the wrong forum, I apologize.
All i want to know is if all airports in the USA must follow the same TSA guidelines for screening passengers at security? Since Septeber 11th and before, the only commonality I have found is all laptops must be removed from their cases for screening as well as all your pockets must be emptied (including Cell phones and Pagers).
Having said that, let me give you an idea of the various methods of operation I encountered this weekend starting in Newark. Sure enough, laptops had to be removed from their case and all electrical devices had to go through the X-Ray machine. Depending on what type of shoe you were wearing, they had to be X-rayed too...the exception was sneakers.
On the return leg from Denver, the laptops, pagers and cellphone rules still apply, but in addition to this you had to remove your jacket, belt, ALL shoes and all jewelry. No wonder the AA FA's in the van to the airport were bemoaning the fact they forgot to pack their jewelry in their carry-ons as Denver and Long Beach were brutal when it comes to security.
If the airline crews know what airports are bad, don't you think most of the unsavioury types do too? I just wish that for once in my lifetime (and I travel every 2 weeks), the TSA would put out a set of rules of what will be screened and what won't be...much like they do for items allowed through screening such as a walking stick and those not allowed such as butane containers or knives.
It appears to me that every airport has their own rules which leaves the customer at a severe dis-advantage in knowing whether they arrive 2 hours early for domestic flights and then wait 1hr and 55minutes for their flight like in Newark or arrive 2 hours early in Denver and then start running down the concourse before the planes close their doors.
I'm all for better security, i'd just like somebody to explain the rules as it pertains to what should I remove prior to screening as opposed to holding up the line when I reach the front.
Newark
PlaneTruth
9th Jun 2003, 06:08
Newarksmells,
The problem lies with you sir.
You are making a big mistake assuming logic and common sense have anything to do with current TSA procedures. (TSA =Thousands Standing Around)
If you ask the TSA, they'll tell you they want slightly different emphasis at each airport to keep "the bad guys" off center. When we ask, "Why does the vast majority of the workforce that works on the ramp have access that circumvents security", they tell us to shut up.
The media refuses to cover this "little ommision" in the security fence. The only story I have seen is a former Customs Service lady who was interviewed on Fox News who detailed how some customs employees at JFK had access to corridors that led out of the airport --and had been using them to traffic illegal goods/money in and out of the airport. She also confirmed the lack of ramp security. Hell, who cares. Half the TSA folks at LAX got canned after they were found to have criminal records. Reason: No background checks as of yet.
Congress is starting to ask questions like, "After 5 BILLION dollars in creating the TSA, why are the same number of bombs, knives and guns getting through on TSA security checks of their own people as before 911?" Congress doesn't like the answers they are getting.
Now, the TSA has finally broken down and admitted they will be targeting the individual (another euphamism for profiling) and that will reportedly allow laptops to stay in SOME peoples bags.
The truth is, each airport represents someone's empire and many airports do things I have been told are not specifically detailed by TSA regulation. (Translation: License to steal by TSA empire builders.)
If you figure this stuff out --check yourself into a mental hospital.
Just call your Congressman and bitch. Call (202) 224-3121 and tell them you want the distinguished gentleman's office from NJ (if that's your home).
PT:yuk:
Report: Hundreds Of LAX Screeners Fired For Poor Performance
Layoffs Represent About 13 Percent Of Total Work Force
POSTED: 7:12 p.m. PDT June 4, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- Hundreds of airport screeners at Los Angeles International Airport have been fired for poor performance, according to sources cited Wednesday by the Daily Breeze of Torrance.
The workers were let go for poor performance and failure to show up for work, the newspaper reported.
The Daily Breeze, citing an airport worker who attended a recent briefing held by a Transportation Security Administration supervisor, also said 100 more workers will soon be fired.
The 360 workers represent about 13 percent of the airport's authorized work force of 2,695 passenger and baggage screeners.
Airport representatives and airline employees said the reductions have not caused delays for passengers, adding that screening times have remained below the TSA's 10-minute goal.
"It isn't (a problem) now, it could be if (passenger) loads come back," said Paul Haney, the airport's deputy executive director of communications.
The firings are not related to additional background checks the airport is performing on all its screeners, the newspaper reported.
The TSA agreed to allow Los Angeles International to perform a new round of checks following revelations that some screeners had criminal records.
Sounds consistent to me! PT
A federal security screener at Portland International Airport has been accused of taking $1,300 in cash from a passenger's purse last month at a security checkpoint, according to a Transportation Security Administration spokesman and the passenger.
The money -- 13 crumpled $100 bills -- was later found in a trash basket near the checkpoint after the passenger discovered the money missing and complained.
Leonora Usi, 39, of Aloha had a videotape that her husband had playfully taken while she was being searched by airport security. She said the tape showed the screener holding something in his left hand during the search.
Usi said she wants to make other travelers aware of what can happen when their luggage is being checked.
"When they violate you like this, then you lose trust in everything," she said.
The screener, 40-year-old Peter Chvatal of Portland, was taken into custody about 8:20 p.m. May 23 by Port of Portland police, said Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the administration. Chvatal was later put on unpaid leave while the administration conducts an internal investigation, Melendez said. Chvatal began working for the administration in September, but Melendez declined to discuss additional details of the case.
Melendez said the administration holds its screeners to "a very high standard," but that there's no way to eliminate the possibility of theft during an airport search.
"I don't think you can," Melendez said. "These things happen in society."
Usi had her purse and another carry-on bag with her. She carried two envelopes containing cash. One envelope had 50 $1 bills. The other carried the $100 bills, as well as fives, tens and 20s, Usi said.
She planned to give a cash gift to her niece in Florida, she said.
After she walked through the security scanner, a guard asked her to step to the side and take off her shoes. She complied, and the guard ran a wand around her feet, she said. Then she was asked to stand, and a guard waved a wand over her arms and legs.
When she turned around, a screener approached her with her purse, Usi said. She thinks the purse was already open. He began asking her where she was going and whether it was a vacation.
Then he opened the carry-on bag in her presence and began to search that, Usi said.
If the screener opened the purse before he talked to Usi, as she claims, that would violate Transportation Security Administration protocol. Supervisors do not monitor screeners as they search bags, Melendez said. But screeners are supposed to open and search bags in the presence of passengers.
After the carry-on bag was searched, Usi was allowed to proceed to her gate.
Her sister, Maclara Bonifacio, was suspicious. She had watched the guard who searched the purse and the carry-on bag. While they were walking to the gate, she told Usi she thought jewelry had been taken from the carry-on. Usi checked and found all her jewelry.
Then her sister suggested she check the purse. That's when Usi discovered that the $100 bills had been taken from one of the envelopes, she said.
When she returned to the security checkpoint, Usi said, she talked to a screener and then a security supervisor. She was asked if she'd had her purse with her the whole time and if she had left the money at home.
Usi assured them that she brought the money with her to the airport and hadn't given the purse to anyone.
She also told them that her husband, Ferdinand, had a videotape of the security check-in. He made the video while the security guard was using the wand on Usi and planned to tease her about it later, she said.
Ferdinand allowed the supervisor to watch the video. According to Usi, that video shows the security screener searching her purse with his left hand clenched. His hand also remained closed while he searched her carry-on, she said.
There was also a tape from a security camera, Usi said, but she did not see it.
Port of Portland officers arrived and took the video Ferdinand made, with his permission. The money was retrieved from the basket and returned to Usi, she said.
More from Oregon
Firings complicate security
The Transportation Security Administration has fired 25 federal screeners at Portland International Airport since late last year for a variety of offenses, from failing background checks to making up a security breach at a passenger checkpoint that forced the closure of two concourses.
Another screener now faces termination and potential criminal charges after it was revealed last week that he was arrested in late May and accused of taking $1,300 in cash from a passenger's purse as he searched it at a checkpoint.
The Transportation Security Administration's woes at the airport reflect criticism the agency received nationwide recently after it was reported that background checks have not been completed on more than half of its 52,600 screeners.
The agency, created in part to provide airport security after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, has fired about 1,200 screeners who were already working at airports around the country when they failed background checks, including some who had felony records.
"It's a real problem," Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, said Friday. Latham is one of several members of a House subcommittee who were sharply critical of the agency's performance at a hearing last week. "We're trusting these people to make us safe going through the airports."
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, who sits on two House committees that share jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration, said Friday that he is concerned about screeners with unsavory backgrounds.
"They've got to go," he said, but added that the screeners often work in groups, suggesting their conduct is monitored by co-workers.
A Transportation Security Administration spokesman said Friday that more terminations are likely across the country as background checks are completed on the rest of the screeners.
The federal screeners make between $23,000 and $38,000 annually, depending on where they work. The first federal screeners began working at PDX in September 2002, and 658 had been hired by the end of May, Melendez said. So far, ten have been fired for failing a complex series of background checks, he said.
The background investigations include a fingerprint check by the FBI, a criminal history check, comparison to a terrorist database and verification of employment history, education and personal references.
Screeners are automatically disqualified if investigators discover they have committed any one of a variety of crimes, including felony arson, aggravated assault, carrying a weapon aboard an aircraft and murder. They're also disqualified if they fail a drug test or falsify employment applications.
Melendez said he did not know the reasons the screeners who were fired at PDX had failed their background checks.
He also said Friday that 15 screeners have been fired at the airport for "not living up to the standards we set," which could include failing to show up for work and on-the-job conduct. He declined to specify why they had been fired.
"They're very important jobs that require very serious people to conduct," Melendez said. "When we identify someone who can't live up to the standards, we will take the necessary actions. If that person needs to be terminated, we will get that person out of our workforce."
One screener was fired in November for concocting a story about a security breach at a passenger checkpoint on Oct. 31. He told a supervisor that someone had failed to step aside for additional screening when asked to do so after passing through a metal detector.
Two concourses were closed and more than 500 passengers were re-screened in an effort to find the person who purportedly wouldn't step aside.
Last week, Melendez acknowledged that a screener was taken into custody on May 23 after he was accused of stealing 13 $100 bills from a passenger's purse at a security checkpoint.
Peter Chvatal, 40, of Portland, was arrested by Port of Portland police that night. The case has been forwarded to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, which is expected to seek an indictment from a grand jury. Chvatal was also placed on unpaid leave and is awaiting the results of an internal investigation by the Transportation Security Administration.
The money was found that night in a nearby trash basket and returned to the passenger before her flight left.
Chvatal passed his background checks before he was hired, Melendez said, adding that "background checks are a great way of measuring past behavior, but they're never going to predict the future."
According to Steve Johnson, a spokesman for the Port of Portland, which polices the airport, there have been no other police investigations or arrests involving TSA employees.
The Transportation Security Administration plans to complete background checks on the remainder of its screeners by Oct. 1.
There is more upheaval in store for screeners, at PDX, however. As part of a nationwide effort to cut costs, the administration will eliminate screener positions through attrition, including about 100 screeners at PDX, by the end of September, Melendez said.
DeFazio called the cuts "arbitrary" and said he fears it will lead to longer lines at security checkpoints
Excellent, honest factually post...If our passengers want change contact your local politician, they created the mess, let them straighten it out..Don't hold your breath..
As crew operating international flights, out of the US it is now mandatory that our hold baggage is not locked. This is to ensure that TSA is able to open the bags at random prior to loading. If the bag is locked, then TSA is not liable for any damage to the case.
Given the far more likely possibility of either contraband or sabotage material being placed in the bag when out of the owner's control, being unlocked by mandate, I would suggest that this dictate is a) stupid and b) wrong!
Having said that, I find that TSA employees are generally far more polite at all the US airports that I visit than their privately employed predecessors were.
Unlocked luggage is really bad idea.
TSA staff in searching a bag could trigger an IED, or as in the recent case where a pax is stupid enough to carry live ordnance in their luggage.
Allegations made of theft by staff, leave both TSA and baggage handlers vulnerable to allegations.
Really odd thing is that the x-ray machines at many US airports are very close to check-in. Bags rejected for random search or unsatis’ x-ray can be checked with passengers before they leave to go to the gate.
That’s before we have to deal with dishonest staff.
Result, attempts to reduce hand luggage fail because no one wants to anything semi-precious in unlocked hold luggage.