Report on Airport Security
By DH on Nov 15, 2007 in Personal notes
As an extension to my blog posting yesterday about airport security … or the holes in the system … is a report today in The New York Times that the Government Accounting Office tested TSA’s screening process at a variety of airports in the U.S. Investigators smuggled liquid explosives and detonators through airport checkpoints, exposing dangerous vulnerabilities in security efforts.
While airport security may just be seen as an hourly job to the TSA workers that doesn’t require heavy thinking or lifting, airport security is critically important to all the many people who fly America’s airlines and want transportation to be safe and free from threat. What is being revealed as yet another example of incompetence by our government has long been a worry and is really nothing new for those of us who travel frequently.
TSA was created by bureaucrats, not professional leaders or managers, out of the political expediency of 9-11. It is clearly inadequate, and what is worse, the bad guys must know that.
As I observe, consult and write books and articles about reputation and brand leadership in today's highly competitive world, I will share thoughts and perspective on this blog.
On Nov 19, 2007, Barney said:
I wonder how US airport security compares with airport security in the UK. It seems to me that the security people at Heathrow and the various airports I travel through regularly are reasonably thorough. They’re learning to process people more quickly too, but without (I hope) compromising the care of their searches. However, airports vary in the extent to which they check shoes. Stansted has machines for checking shoes immediately after the bags are checked. Other airports examine shoes manually on a random (ish) basis.
I have to say, that, that I have been through security with liquids in my hand baggage and not in the regulation clear plastic bag - and I’ve not been picked up.