Airport Security Right after September 11th

A NATION CHALLENGED: THE SCREENERS; Security Bill Is Criticized By Those It Would Displace
By DAVID FIRESTONE
Published: November 16, 2001

ATLANTA, Nov. 15— Having failed in last-minute lobbying to save its multimillion-dollar contracts with the airlines, the airport security industry reacted with bitterness and skepticism to today’s Congressional compromise that essentially puts private companies out of the passenger-screening business for at least three years.

An industry spokesman accused Congress of adopting a ”failed national approach” to aviation security that would quickly expose the government to the same complaints now directed at private screeners.

”When the government does step in to take over the process, we have confidence it will find the same challenges we did — an imperfect technology and inevitable human error,” said Kenneth P. Quinn, who leads the industry’s newly formed trade group, the Aviation Security Association, and lobbies for it. ”They will find that so long as human beings are operating imperfect technology, things can get through our system.”

The bill, agreed on by House and Senate negotiators today, would put the Department of Transportation in charge of airport security within a year, except at five airports where programs would test private security companies. After three years, airports could hire private security companies to replace the federal workers.

Mr. Quinn said he would be surprised if the slow federal government could take over the entire industry within a year, particularly if security providers move their best employees to nonairport jobs at banks and other private companies.

”We have serious concerns about the government’s ability to put into place an effective security work force at 420 airports in less than a year,” he said in a conference call with reporters from his office in Washington. ”People may think the work force will transition to the federal government, but they could well be dead wrong. There are lots of folks who don’t want to work for the federal government, and the good and professional folks in the work force are likely to be retained by security companies and placed in other demanding security tasks.”

The private security industry has been under almost constant fire since the attacks of Sept. 11 because of its low-paid workers and history of errors at airport checkpoints. Though the companies have blamed poor compensation from the airlines for many of their problems, they have spent the last few weeks frantically trying to improve their image with raises for employees and announcements of far stricter rules at checkpoints. They also formed the trade association and hired Mr. Quinn to persuade lawmakers not to run them out of business in the face of public pressure.

But now, having lost the battle, some members of the industry do not plan to sit quietly and allow the government to take over their contracts, which have been valued at $330 million. Mr. Quinn said some companies were considering seeking compensation from the government for federalizing their work force.

”Thousands of jobs will be lost and millions of dollars in investment expectations will be lost,” he said. ”It’s a very sad footnote to today’s compromise.”

Argenbright Security, the largest of the companies, was acquired by a large British conglomerate last year for $185 million, in part because of its desirable contracts with 40 percent of the airline industry. Last week, the company, based in Atlanta, replaced its founder and announced a new series of security improvements, partly to stave off a Congressional action like this one and to salvage its reputation, badly tarnished by a series of security lapses. Even today, Argenbright was barred from working in Massachusetts because of continued problems at Logan International Airport.

Mr. Quinn said that Argenbright was examining its options in terms of compensation.

The company’s new chief executive, David Beaton, said in a statement that Argenbright would cooperate with the transition to a federal work force, though it was disappointed in today’s outcome. Mr. Beaton did not say whether Argenbright would seek compensation from the government for its lost contracts, but he expressed concern about the morale of the company’s 6,000 screeners as they face the prospect of becoming employees of the Department of Transportation.

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