[ OUR OPINION ]
STRUGGLING to meet a congressional deadline to completely federalize the nation's airports by the holiday season, the new Transportation Security Administration has chosen to significantly broaden its scope. The Fourth of July shooting at Los Angeles Airport prompted the agency to extend its security measures into all public areas of airports, including ticket counters. Take caution in
expanding airport security
THE ISSUE The Transportation Security Administration has said it will extend security measures into public areas of airports.
Skepticism about whether the TSA will be able to replace all private security workers with federal employees by Nov. 19 raises doubts about whether trying to take an even bigger bite is realistic. That, coupled with increased complaints about the hassle of air travel, should cause the agency to temper its appetite.
Shortly after an Egyptian immigrant opened fire at Israel's El Al airline check-in counter at the Los Angeles Airport, TSA spokesman Greg Warren explained defensively that the agency's responsibility was limited to "security at the checkpoint and on the aircraft." A day later, the agency issued a statement saying, "Our responsibility for aviation security extends from the perimeter of the airport ... to checkpoints and beyond, in fact, to the successful conclusion of each and every flight."
Security was heightened at U.S. airports after Sept. 11 to prevent further hijackings of commercial aircraft to be used as instruments of terror. The focus correctly was placed on searching passengers and baggage for weapons or explosives to be used in terrorist attacks.
The restriction of concourses to ticketed passengers has created crowds of people bidding farewell or awaiting the arrival of friends and relatives in public areas of terminals. These crowds have no more to do with plane hijackings than do gatherings at busy bus or railway terminals. Increased security at airport terminals may only aggravate the "hassle factor," which Delta Air Lines estimates will cause the airline industry to lose $3.8 billion in revenue this year.
At Israel's Ben-Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv, security forces armed with mini-Uzi submachine guns stop cars and search some on the road at the airport's front gate. Security guards carrying concealed weapons roam inside and outside the terminal building.
Such drastic measures at U.S. airports would do more to create imagined fear than they would do to provide needed security. American policy does not require an ambitious expansion of security in that direction solely because of a single shooting incident that, by all accounts, had nothing to do with terrorism.
The TSA is trying to complete hiring and training 65,000 federal security employees, including 28,000 screeners, within the next four months. At this point, it has federalized only three of the nation's 429 airports. It will be all the agency can do to achieve that goal while being incorporated into a new Department of Homeland Security.
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