Security at airports evolving

Screening process has suffered growing pains in past decade

BY TED JACKOVICS

The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA -- Jim Agnew has traveled more than 2.5 million miles on commercial flights. The Tampa retiree has a long-standing perspective of aviation security extending well before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Those were the days when public attention focused more on potential hijackers with a personal cause, such as diverting a flight to Cuba, than an attack by terrorists with broader political aims.

After 9/11, government employees took over passenger security. It's a system in flux, drawing frequent attention for complaints about inconvenience, pat-down searches and intrusive image scans.

But Agnew isn't complaining. He's grateful airline passengers have traveled safely since the 9/11 attacks. As a frequent traveler and general-aviation pilot, Agnew generally is more pleased with travel through Tampa International Airport than through other large airports.

"Tampa always had done a pretty good job controlling the security lines," he said. "I've always found it pretty easy to get through Tampa, although every new thing they add just delays you further."

Passengers must remove shoes andbelts and comply with Transportation Security Administration instructions for the latest scanning devices -- simple tasks for some that confound and delay others who might fail to properly hold their airline ticket over the head, away from the body, or remove a wallet from a back pocket.

"Back in the days my wife and I were flying on business it was possible to fly for a meeting to Chicago or Detroit and easily get back on the same day, without spending a night and that expense on the road," Agnew said. "That's not the case these days, with the extra hours security adds to every itinerary."

Some of the evolution in airport security follows operational or intelligence findings, such as in 2006 when the TSA began limiting liquids that could be carried on aircraft. The rules were instituted after authorities foiled a plot to bring down trans-Atlantic flights with a liquid explosive.

Other changes come from public pressure, such as recent investments in technology enhancements that further blur body images for scanning equipment in place at Tampa International and elsewhere.

In 2008, Tampa International began to participate in a TSA program in which passengers could choose which security lane was appropriate for their use, based on their experience with the procedures. That allowed passengers with families, for example, to choose a lane separate from business travelers.

The airport has added a preferred-passenger lane managed by the airlines for their frequent travelers.

"This change was requested by the air carriers and has worked well," airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan said.

Still, post-9/11 security has resulted in some perceived excesses nationally. In May, for example, Kansas City security screeners were photographed patting down a baby after the tot's stroller set off an explosives alarm screening. In July, a 95-year-old woman was asked to remove a diaper at a checkpoint in a Florida Panhandle airport.

The TSA does not discuss specifics in procedures or security performance for individual airports such as Tampa International, where 550 TSA employees are assigned.

"We are committed to a strategy that goes far beyond the physical screening at the checkpoint that most people associate us with," TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz in Miami said in an email.

The passenger checkpoint is one of more than 20 layers of TSA security that have evolved since 9/11, she said. Those include using intelligence gathered by multiple U.S. agencies; checking passenger manifests against watch lists; training officers in behavior detection; and securing flights with air marshals.

"A terrorist who has to overcome multiple security layers in order to carry out an attack is more likely to be pre-empted, deterred or fail during the attempt," Koshetz said.

Multiple security failures contributed to the success of the 9/11 attacks, including a failure to respond to intelligence reports of a possible attack, including the now well-known CIA report delivered to former President George W. Bush on Aug. 6, 2001, titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S."

But the ultimate failure was the ability the terrorists had to penetrate the cockpits of the four hijacked airliners, a design and security flaw the government says it has addressed in part by strengthening cockpit doors.

Despite efforts, however, improved security measures are needed, two Government Accountability Office reports released in July concluded after studying the TSA's baggage-screening measures and behavior-observation techniques.

Those reports prompted U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, to call for screening to be turned back to private firms, which ran airport screening operations before 9/11. That would give the TSA time to focus on other security elements.

"GAO's report confirms that TSA has bungled the development and deployment of a potentially important layer of aviation security," Mica said.

Frequent flier Agnew, 70, says security improvements made in the future shouldn't further delay travelers.

"You have to be careful of ways to beat the system," said Agnew, who wrote Mica with suggestions on improving airport security. "But it should be possible to streamline the system, too."

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