Plan for airport screener badges criticized; Groups say uniforms resemble police gear

A federal plan to issue gold badges and police-like uniforms to the nation's 43,000 airport screeners is coming under fire from a key law enforcement association, which says the idea is dangerous and would give the public a false sense of security.

The group says U.S. Transportation Security Administration screeners are neither armed nor trained in law enforcement techniques. Dressing screeners like police officers would create the illusion they have full law enforcement powers, causing confusion and putting everyone at risk in the war against terrorism, the group asserted.

The plan is among recent TSA moves that have drawn the anger of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, a lobbying group that represents about 26,000 federal officers with police powers, such as those in the FBI, Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection and Federal Air Marshals program.

"If it is your intent to make it appear that TSA has ...

uniformed police officers stationed at airports and train stations across the country to make the public feel more secure, we believe that this premise is wrong and not in the best interest of the public or the law-enforcement community," Art Gordon, the association president, wrote in a letter dated July 14 to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Homeland Security officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The law enforcement association already was unhappy with an 18-month-old TSA program that teams the agency's armed federal air marshals -- who have law-enforcement powers -- with unarmed screeners and inspectors on special units deployed at airports, rail and bus stations.

These squads, known as Visual Intermodal Protection and Response units, or VIPR teams, gained a higher profile this month when they were sent to East and West Coast airports and other transportation facilities to beef up security patrols in the wake of terrorist incidents in England and Scotland.

"The teaming up of highly trained federal air marshals with civilian TSA screeners in uniform in front of airports and train stations is a recipe for disaster," Gordon wrote.

Christopher White, a TSA spokesman, said in an e-mail response, "It is premature to discuss a potential concern regarding uniform changes, as they have not been deployed."