Airport Security: What is it going to take for airport security to be tightened up in regards to airline and airport employees?

                                                                                                   

Hey there!

Freedom is the greatest gift known to man!  In the same context, an airline or airport employee has such freedom when issued a SIDA (Secure Identification Display Area) badge to gain access to secured areas such as baggage loading areas, taxiways, runways and boarding gates. Prior to issuance of a SIDA badge, all employees must meet both TSA background check requirements and criminal background

This SIDA badge is the GATEWAY TO THE WORLD!  Regrettably, the airline and airport employees utilize this resource for their own personal business enterprise by performing illegal activities that are also known as a “side hustle!” A “side hustle” is money laundering, transporting weapons or drugs, and something as simple as using your SIDA badge for your own personal business moving goods and services. "A gun-smuggling ring that brought illegal firearms into Brooklyn via commercial airline flights was dismantled after investigators pinched the mule and nabbed his hookup-a Delta employee in Atlanta" (Yaniv & Stepansky, 2014).   I tweeted an article which demonstrates these unethical behaviors performed by airline employees Airport Security: Why the rash of airline employee trouble? ow.ly/10dBUp.

What is it going to take for airport security to tightened up in regards to airline and airport employees? The government’s bureaucratic red tape makes this issue thorny not only for the millions of dollars desired by the DHS but also the resources required by the TSA.  I addressed this gap in my book called “The Inside Man: Evaluating Security Communication Failures at a United States Commercial Airport” regarding the ability to effectively communicate and execute airport security policies successfully between TSA, airlines, and airport employees. I explored how communication among the employees of the TSA, airlines, and airport influences the effective execution and implementation of policy and policy changes:

“When there is a failure of policy execution, particularly in the communication of information within the TSA organization. These risks include (a) prohibited items being undetected at security checkpoints and (b) planes returning to the gates when prohibited items are identified and the airlines have to remove the passenger from the plane. At the level of the airline organizations, (a) passengers feel the impact when making their connecting flights, which increases passengers’ anxiety; (b) a delay of bags at passengers’ destination creates bag claims and baggage delivery charges; (c) a heightened public awareness of prohibited items passing through checkpoints creates a sense of doubt of these government security policies; and (d) terrorists are aware of TSA failures, which creates opportunities to exploit the passenger screening process through Internet technology and mass media. (Tyler, 2016). 

Tyler, S. (2016).  The Inside Man:  Evaluating Security Communication Failures at a United States Commerical Airport. Univerity of Press of America. Rowman & Littlefield.https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780761867265/The-Inside-Man-Evaluating-Security-Communication-Failures-at-a-United-States-Commercial-Airport 

Yaniv, O. & Stepansky, J. (2014). Gun-smuggling ring from Atlanta to JFK used Delta flights to move weapons: sources. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/delta-worker-smuggled-guns-flights-atlanta-jfk-article-1.2054257