PE.com - Tourism Blog

Airport Security

A crew of local broadcast news investigators in Phoenix. hung around Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with secret cameras from midnight to 4:30 a.m. and watched employees barely pause to flash a badge at a private security guard with bags, uninspected, in tow.

Public outrage ensued, the city's mayor defended and the Transportation Security Administration benched the airport's security director while they investigate.

But since the story broke, I've gotten bits and pieces of info about the security situation at LA/Ontario International Airport and Palm Springs International Airport.

According to the TSA: "National policy dictates that people working in concourses, as well as goods sold in the so-called 'sterile area,' are screened before entering those concourses."

With that said I had a few questions for the TSA and got less than a few answers back.

My e-mail to a helpful TSA press officer:

As for the national policy -- does that require a human being, either TSA or some other law enforcement official, to check badges and bags of those entering a secure area 24/7? Does national policy condone using secured badges to open locked doors (with no human presence checking)?

What is LA/Ontario International Airport's after-hours security policy in regards to employees? When does TSA leave for the evening and come back in the morning, if that's the case? Do employees just swipe badges or is there an official on duty 24/7 checking badges.

And the response:

"The airport has 20- and 21-hour operations in 2 terminals, so almost 24/7 but during the closed time no one accesses the sterile area. The airport provides the guard and when it reopens, at approx. 0330, the police do sweeps prior to."

So at LA/Ontario, when the TSA crew leaves for three to four hours, no one is allowed in the secured area of the airport.

At Palm Springs International Airport, TSA leaves the airport from 9:16 p.m. to 4:29 a.m. when no passenger flights are departing or landing. During that time, employees needing to get into a secure area must have security clearance to open the door.

So here's the thing -- should TSA be inspecting airport employees 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Or would the agency be stretched too thin?