Re: Airport security [no such thing]

[Lone_Wolf <gt6511a@cad.gatech.edu>]

# On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, Lucky Green wrote:
# 
# > I recently took a domestic flight from the Oakland, CA airport. While
# > waiting for the airplane, I spent some time observing the security measures
# > at the X-ray machine.
# 
# [snip]
<snip>
# 
# > I was flabbergasted. They let a man with two *large steel containers* enter
# > unchecked? No asking for ID, no X-ray? I struck up a conversation with the
# > beer truck driver. I asked him why the kegs did not get X-rayed. He looked
# > at me with an expression of utter lack of understanding and answered: "They
# > are too heavy to be put on the [conveyor] belt."
# > 
# > Right... We wouldn't want to have these 50 pound steel barrels jam the
# > X-ray machine.
# 
# Was he wearing a ID badge with a photo?  Was he known to the security
# staff?

So?  Anybody in computer security knows that many of the biggest security
threats are within the organization.  Hell, the cops in NYC were going nuts
a few months back because a delivery driver made off with an entire shipment
of handguns, and sold most of them on the street before being caught.  Given,
his alleged past history was such that he likely wouldn't pass the background
check for secure-area access of an airport, but there's still holes.  I remember
being warned back in my armed-security to get through college days that the
gate I was guarding was considered part of the "secure" zone of the airport 
(runway extension, I was verifying ID cards on heavy equipment drivers as
they drove in and out), so I needed to make sure I didn't have any weapons (or
at least not visible) because the airport cops would go nuts if they saw any.
Note:  I accessed this area with NO check of me or my vehicle (what prompted
the warning was the construction boss who had contracted with my company 
noticed my holster), and the security company I worked for had never asked me
for enough personal data to do a full background check.
# 
# One wonders, do they x-ray or inspect the food that goes to the 
# snack bars, the liquor that goes to the bars, the merchandise that goes 
# to the newsstands and gift shops?  Do they even inspect the hand baggage
# of flight crews?

Depends on the airport.  Back in October, I witnessed a pilot annoyed that his
hand luggage was being inspected at Hartsfield Int'l in Atlanta.
# 
# It isn't that airport security is lax; it's that providing security runs
# at cross-purposes with providing access for the general traveling public 
# and the services they expect.

Only partially.  A BIG factor in security problems at US airports is low pay,
poor training, and few incentives for the airport security personnel.  Most
physical security jobs of any sort are not much more than minimum pay, and even
supervisors are poorly paid.  As a result, few quality people are in the least
bit interested in working security.  Those that do often don't get the full
training to do their job.  Police work faces many of the same factors, but
security work is just about always rated lower socially/professionally than
police work, and police work offers more individual challenges and peer support
(not all of the forms of peer support are good for society, and the level of
challenge can present their own problems, but that's another issue).

James

# 
# Alan Bostick               | To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height
# mailto:abostick@netcom.com | of elegance.
# news:alt.grelb             |      Jean Genet
# http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick
# 
#