NCJ Number
189473
Date Published
2000
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This General Accounting Office (GAO) report examines airport screeners' performance in detecting threats to airport security, efforts being made to improve problems, and screening practices in other countries.
Abstract
The GAO and others have raised concerns for years about the effectiveness of screeners and the need to improve their performance. Aviation is an attractive target for terrorists because the air transportation system is critical to the Nation's well-being. With the thousands of daily flights and pieces of luggage, securing an airport is a difficult task. More than two million passengers and their baggage must be checked each day for weapons, explosives or other dangerous articles. Over the past 5 years, screeners detected nearly 10,000 firearms being carried through checkpoints, but incidents occurred each year in which weapons were discovered to have passed through a checkpoint. From May 1998 through April 1999, screener turnover averaged 126 percent at the Nation's 19 largest airports, with 5 airports reporting turnover of 200 percent and 1 reporting turnover of 416 percent. Rapid turnover can seriously affect the level of experience among screeners. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) attributes the turnover to low wages. Fast-food workers at airports often make more than screeners, who sometimes earn the minimum wage. The FAA is deploying a system in which screeners receive on-the-job training by exposing them to what a variety of threat images look like on screen. It also wants to establish performance standards that will give security companies a greater incentive to retain their best screeners. However, both systems are behind schedule. Screening operations in other countries are more effective because they pay screeners more, require screeners to "pat down" those who set off alarms or maintain a constant police presence near the checkpoints. The FAA may need to adopt the security measures taken by other countries.