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Internet Travel Monitor - Events & Legislation
October 17, 2007
TSA Staff Filling Airport Security Jobs
WASHINGTON, DC - The folks checking your ID at airport security will now sport the government's black and gold TSA badges.
This fall, the federal Transportation Security Administration began replacing airport- or airline-employed contractors with its own staffers in an effort to heighten its focus on suspicious individuals rather than just prohibited items.
"This is an added layer of security," explained Andrea McCauley, TSA spokeswoman for the Southwest region.
The TSA will add 1,300 positions across the nation to staff the new role.
They will undergo more robust training to recognize suspicious behavior and IDs and will have a special magnifying glass and black light to do secondary checks if a boarding pass or government-issued ID looks falsified.
The change will also give the TSA greater control over how quickly security checkpoint lines move.
"It allows us to work with ... [the ID checkers] on a one-to-one relationship to work on passenger flow and manage waits in the queue," Ms. McCauley said.
Early results suggest that the program will not change security wait times, she said.
TSA began rolling out the program last month and has already implemented it at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field, Ms. McCauley said.
It was tested last winter at airports in New York (Kennedy), Baltimore and Phoenix, she said.
Copyright 2007 The Dallas Morning News, Inc. All rights
reserved. From http://www.dallasnews.com. By Suzanne Marta.
To view the Internet Travel Monitor Archive, click http://www.tripinfo.com/ITM/index.html.
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