Bush Officials Claim a Kinder, Gentler Airport Security
"Smile, people!" Chertoff makes
nice with the TSOs.
AP Photo
Earlier this week I was one of a small group of bloggers invited to a post-election briefing with the top dogs in charge of the nation's security, Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff and Transportation Security Administration director Kip Hawley. The message: Homeland Security, a mega-agency that didn't exist six years ago, is getting more customer-friendly. Don't quite see it that way? Here are some of the successes they trotted out:
* The "What's Your Lane?" program, which allows fliers to be screened along with their peers (e.g. families in one line, business travelers in another). The results, they claim, have been so positive that the "family/special needs" lanes will be rolled out nationwide this week, in time for Thanksgiving. No word yet on if or when they'll expand the "expert" lanes nationwide, and they may be redundant at checkpoints with registered traveler lanes.
* Improvements in the technology capable of detecting dangerous liquids will make it possible to get rid of those irritating rules on quantities by the end of next year. A handheld gizmo, which, as one screener describes it, resembles a pistol with a computer the size of an iPod attached at the end, is supposed to sniff your shampoo and spring water for explosive vapor.
* And sometime in January, you will start giving your birth date, home address, and full legal name when you make an airline reservation--all part of a "secure flight" initiative that will reduce the number of innocent people who are falsely flagged as potential terrorists because their names resemble those of actual bad guys.
Chertoff and Hawley, it should be noted, are about to lose their jobs--which, considering all the criticism flung at them over the past few years, might come as something of a relief to the duo. It also means that as of January 20, they'll have to go through airport security as normal civilians. Chertoff admitted that "for many reasons, the airport isn't a happy place these days," and said he's keenly aware that the job of a TSO (transportation security officer) is one of the more thankless in the federal landscape. (I should know: I worked as one for two months in late 2006, right after the liquids rules were imposed.)
Which might get to one of the real reasons for this series of blogger forums the DHS is hosting: To buff the image of the TSA through its very own blog and its Web site, which allow the flying public to vent.
In fact, Blogger Bob, a former screener who now works at TSA HQ as a program analyst, sat in on our session. Want to see more of what they think?
By the way, here's what one screener emailed me recently about the imminent change in Washington: "The word is we'll get a union!" Will it make for better, more motivated screeners? The TSOs I've heard from seem to think so. The current administration, of course, has been adamantly opposed.
Further reading:
* Inside Job: My Life as an Airport Screener (CNT)
* Airport Security: Still Not Making the Grade (CNT)
* Air Travel: A Hot Topic for Obama? (CNT)
* On the Fly: The airline industry blogged on the Daily Traveler
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