Airports Have A Gaping Loophole
One of the country’s major airports is the Miami International Airport. Employees line up at a checkpoint where they pass through a metal detector as they report for work. Swiping their badges and gathering their belongings, employees open a door that leads down to the airport secure ramp area. The insider threat seems to be the greatest vulnerability for this airport and probably any other major airport.
The Miami Airport has four checkpoints for employee screenings, as well as five vehicle access gates manned by airport workers. There are random checks of employees. All employees need to go through a mandatory security awareness class among a myriad of other security measures. There are those who work at the gates, such as restaurant employees, pass through TSA security checkpoints. The only other major airport that conducts full employee screenings in Orlando, Florida.
Baggage handlers, mechanics, cleaning crews and other employees 
with access to the airfield and other secure areas do not have to get screened as there is no federal requirement. They are however, subject to a criminal background check and might get randomly screened while at work.
Unlike Miami and Orlando, Atlanta does not use metal detectors to screen workers with access to secure areas. At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, in December, federal agents broke up a gun smuggling operation, arresting a Delta bag handler and passenger.
[one_fourth]
[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last]
Employees with access to restricted areas in Seattle Tacoma International Airport do not have to pass through metal detectors but do carry badges verified by biometric scanners. Los Angeles International Airport, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport and McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas said that some employees with restricted access pass through metal detectors while others do not.
Last year Miami Airport confiscated 209 employee ID badges for security violations. The airport has nearly 34,000 employees with ID badges and 33,150 who have access to restricted areas. Airport police, emergency responders and federal law enforcement are the only ones who do not go through the checkpoints. Miami began screening all employees through checkpoints after there was a 1999 drug smuggling plot in which dozens of ramp and food workers were arrested.
TSA is implementing or considering a range of measures, including additional requirements for employee screening. To specifically address these concerns the TSA teams of law enforcement and screening professionals are conducting additional randomized security countermeasures at employee access points and introducing additional security patrols. The TSA identified workers with access to secure areas of airports as one of the greatest potential threats to aviation.
There is going to be a discussion about all of this on Tuesday at a hearing of a House Homeland Security subcommittee in Atlanta.
