Airport Security

Patrick Smith, a pilot who writes about airline and airport issues on Salon, reports on what appears to be some good news:  

Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent, has been appointed by President Obama to lead the Transportation Security Administration. He replaces Kip Hawley, whose tenure fostered and entrenched some of the agency's worst policies. Southers' appointment has been welcomed by both industry and passenger groups, and he is widely seen as a likely advocate for sensible reform. TSA's screening rules are such a basket case of waste and folly that it's tough to be optimistic, but let's hope those observers are right.

Sheer and Associates founder and president, Tom Sheer, a former Assistant Director of the FBI himself, agrees with Smith's assessment and says that this appointment is a great step in the right direction.  (Here's more on Southers.)

We at Sheer and Associates frequently fly back and forth between our two offices in Palm Beach, Florida and New York City and to various islands in the Caribbean, and, we are always surprised at what people are willing to put up with when going through security check points.  Airport security is definitely in need of reform.  It's not the fault of the TSA employees. As Smith writes, the problems stem from direction at the top.  Many of the security reforms instituted since 9/11 are wasteful and ineffective.  For example, some experts say the restrictions on carry-on liquids are basically useless, observing that the type of explosive that the would-be bombers in Britain plotted to make, need to be made in very stable, controlled conditions, conditions not to be found in an airliner's rest room.  Many countries around the world see no need to restrict liquids and European countries are already planning on lifting the restrictions.  Check Patrick Smith's website and security expert Bruce Schneier's website for more on airport security measures.

Sheer and Associates' Operations Director, Sean Sheer, recently received his Masters Degree in Protection Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.  One of the topics he studied there was airport security.  He says security at Ben Gurion airport in Israel is often cited as a model for the US to follow.  We here at Sheer and Associates are not entirely sure that all of the protocols followed there would necessarily work in the US, but it is definitely worth learning more about what they do in Israel.  Here's a traveler's take on his experience at Ben Gurion, here's an article from the Boston Globe about what the US can learn from Israeli efforts, and here's an article about behavior pattern recognition (not to be confused with racial profiling), a technique that is central to Ben Gurion airport's security measures.