Train the screeners

As an out-of-state student, I spend a lot of time flying. My biggest fears, however, have nothing to do with a terrorist boarding my flight or a technical malfunction bringing down the plane. The thing I am most afraid of is the Transportation Security Administration overreacting to a non-threatening security breach. While this might not result in any loss of life, it does produce hours of delay and a major headache for someone who’s just trying to return home.

While I have yet to experience any major delays due to the TSA’s incompetence at regulating airport terminals, the same cannot be said for passengers at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. On Saturday an entire terminal had to be evacuated and passengers had to be rescreened because a man walked through a restricted door in an attempt to exit the airport.

I would not have such an issue with the scenario if the exact same thing had not occurred earlier this month. At Newark Airport, a Rutgers graduate student slipped under a security cordon to kiss his girlfriend goodbye and caused all hell to break loose. Passengers were evacuated and flights grounded as the TSA scrambled to find out who this man was and where he had gone.

Both instances show a flaw, not in technical security, but in the executors of the safety measures required by the TSA. In short, the security personnel in the terminals need be more alert so they can stop passengers from making mistakes that will result in delays.

There is a consensus among critics that this is the real failing of American airports. Screeners need to be better educated and equipped to deal with events that go wrong.
 
For instance, if this past Saturday a screener had had the wherewithal to stop a man from going through a restricted door, the costly shutdown of a terminal could have been avoided.

The real problem stems from the attitude associated with being a screener. Currently, the job is treated as a customer service profession instead of one concerned with airport security. Becoming an airport screener should be a position for those who actually have the training and ability to spot danger in a crowd. As they stand now, the requirements for the job have little to do with what it takes to actually protect passengers.

For someone looking to become a transportation security officer (TSO), one must be a U.S. citizen with a high school diploma or have at least one year of experience with security or aviation screening or as an X-ray technician. Proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening are also required.

With such high standards for the TSOs in our airports, it is no wonder that such catastrophe has resulted from such small screw-ups.