NYT: Screeners to Be Changed at U.S. Airports [View All]

Screeners to Be Changed at U.S. Airports
By ERIC LIPTON and CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: August 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Sunday that he intended to replace contractors who inspect passenger identification at airport checkpoints with staff members from the Transportation Security Administration, a move that would be one of the biggest expansions of the agency’s tasks since it was set up in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks....

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Details of the plan to replace the contractors were still being worked out. But Mr. Chertoff said the transportation agency screeners would be trained in psychological profiling under the plan, which he intends to announce in the coming weeks or months.

Currently, the contractors who handle the precheckpoint processing of identification documents are hired by airlines. Transportation agency screeners, in addition to handling checkpoint security, also do the simple, labor-intensive task of picking up checked-in bags and placing them into scanning machines before they are loaded onto planes.

Under the plan, contractors would take over the manual labor of handling the checked bags, although federal screeners would continue to interpret images for possible threats. But the switch would free up enough screeners to do the identity checks and behavior analyses of passengers waiting to go through security.

Mr. Chertoff said administration officials would have to work with the airports on any additional costs and on administrative transition. “It is going to require a larger conversation,” said Ellen Howe, a transportation agency spokeswoman. “We would like to consider shifting responsibility” of agency staff “from baggage handling to security.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/washington/14rules.html