Airport Security

[skywalker]

What is better:

Federal workers

or

Federally supervised commissioned workers?

As I'm closer to being a slimy liberal most times ,I think they should be Federal employees. If they are to protect the American people they should of the same stripe as the Armed Forces, Police and FBI etc. imo!

What's your opinion?

[Sir Taliesin]

As a somewhat conservative , person on this board, I somewhat agree with you. My concern is that the security won't be any better though. After all it was federal employees that gave all the hijackers visas anyway. Then afterwards, it was federal workers that didn't keep track of them. Of course I'm not totally sure how they could ever keep track of anyone, since this is a free and open country. That's one thing I would fight to keep from changing BTW. I don't want to give up such a free and open society for the sake of security. What would be the use in living then.

[Ryanamur]

Personnally, I believe that they should all be FBI employes or Air Marshalls! The same goes for up here in Canada, but it will never happen (well, not until an hijacker takes over a Canadian plane... which won't happen because we are a "safe" entry point into the USA!)

[Gaelic]

No, they should not be federal employees, IMHO. Here is why:

1. People keep saying that the baggage screeners failed in their jobs which contributed to the success of the attacks. That is not the case. The box cutters brought on board met all legal requirements for transport on the planes. The prople did their jobs as trained.

2. Making them federal employees will not by any means make them better trained or any smarter or better in general. In fact, it makes them subject to under-funding based on political whims and it takes away incentive to be sharp. There would be no competition and "service" would work like the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, or any of the other slow, lethargic, unimpressive beurocracies we have. Private companies would have competition and incentive to meet standards to keep their contracts. This would help keep costs down while increasing quality.

3. Federal employees who screw up or repeatedly fail to meet standards take up to 2-5 years to fire. Private employees can clean out their lockers the same day. How's that for incentive?

4. The Federal government can set security standards and decertify and company that does not meet them. This will make the baggage handlers as safe as possible but maintains incentive for excellence.

5. Understand that this is nearly all eyewash anyway. Unless every passenger is strip searched and every bag emptied before boarding, most anyone can still get a weapon on board a plane. Individual safety is on higher in the cabin of an airplane than it is on a city bus. The real solution to prevent a reoccurance of September 11 is to shore up and completely blockade the cockpit from the passenger cabin which makes the plane totally un-hijackable no matter how many throats are cut in the back of the plane. You don't arm the pilots and give them incentive to open the door of the cockpit. Any one with training in CQB (Close Quarters Battle) knows that is a losing proposition. Thus, make it so the cockpit cannot be accessed by terrorists and it will be impossible for them to fly a plane into a building. Period.