Editorial: Alarming lapses in security

Wednesday, July 3, 2002 | 9:02 a.m.

Most Americans have gotten over their fears about flying in the wake of Sept. 11. But there still are nagging doubts about the airport security workers who screen passenger baggage. Documents obtained by USA Today do raise serious questions about airport security, including at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. The newspaper reported Monday that screeners at 32 of the largest airports in the nation failed to detect fake weapons, ranging from guns to bombs, in nearly a quarter of undercover tests conducted in June by agents at the Transportation Security Administration. McCarran's failure rate was 50 percent, the second worst.

It's also disturbing that the poor performance occurred even though the agents, posing as passengers, were told to pack their bags like an average passenger, rather than trying to conceal the fake weapons in ways that a terrorist would. There is no telling how high the failure rate would have been if a "real-world" scenario had been used instead. The TSA oversees airport security, but the new agency is just starting the nationwide hiring of federal airport security screeners, a responsibility that previously fell to the airlines.

The TSA is expected to finish hiring the new federal employees by November. It has been anticipated that many of the current privatized screeners ultimately will be hired by the federal government. It's absolutely essential, however, that the agency not hire any current employees who can't pass the kind of undercover test that so many recently failed. The TSA must place a premium on hiring the best employees for these jobs. Our nation's security depends on it.