Florida Airport Wants to Lose TSA Staff

(Nov. 18) -- An airport in Florida wants to kick out Transportation Security Administration staff and replace them with private contractors. 

Orlando Sanford International Airport says the move would give it greater oversight over how security staff treat passengers.


"Privatization breeds competition," airport spokeswoman Diane Crews told AOL News. "It will create a more efficient operation, it will allow us greater oversight as an airport authority, and it will result in greater customer satisfaction." 

Hiring contractors would not change security procedure, and some TSA staff would remain as supervisors. 

The TSA has come in for intense criticism over heightened security at airports. The agency recently introduced additional security measures including pat-downs and full-body scans that create an image of the traveler's naked body. 

Orlando Sanford International has received "some complaints" about TSA personnel and decided to take advantage of TSA rules that allow an airport to use private contractors, Crews said. 

"This isn't us saying, 'We hate the TSA, we want to go private,' " Crews told AOL News. "We are taking advantage of a TSA program."

Seventeen other airports, including Jackson Hole, Wyo,. and Rochester, N.Y., currently use private contractors. 

The TSA downplayed the request, saying that it "sets the security standard," regardless of who's actually patting down the travelers. 


"All commercial airports are regulated by TSA, whether the actual screening is performed by TSA officers or private companies," spokesman Greg Soule told AOL News. "TSA sets the security standards that must be followed and includes the use of enhanced pat-downs and imaging technology, if installed at the airport. "

Soule gave no indication of whether TSA would approve the request from the airport. 

Rep. John Mica, who may head the House Transportation Committee next year, has called the TSA "unwieldy" and has encouraged airports to think about bringing in private staff. 

"When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees," the Florida Republican wrote in a letter to 150 airports. "As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law."

John Pistole, administrator of the TSA, has defended his agency. 

The X-ray imaging "is the best technology available today," Pistole said, according to The Associated Press. "We have protections in place to make sure we protect the privacy of travelers."

Some travelers have expressed intense anger over the increased security, saying both the pat-downs and the full-body scans are too intrusive. Still, a recent CBS poll showed that 81 percent of Americans approve the use of what the poll called "full-body digital X-ray machines" in airports. 

Last month, a Memphis pilot refused to undergo the full-body scan or pat-down, saying it was "an assault." Michael Roberts, a first officer with ExpressJet Airlines, was traveling as a passenger but wearing his pilot's uniform. 


Active pilots do not have to go through the security measures. 

Roberts had previously written online about how the TSA security measures were "an outrage" and a "significant step" on the road to tyranny. 

Orlando's decision to ask for private contractors seems popular with locals, according to an online poll by local radio station WDBO. Eighty percent of those who took the poll said that "anything is better than TSA," while only 2 percent said the move would make them feel less safe. 

"I would rather pull up my shirt and show them my undies that expose myself to radiation and the pat-down," one commenter wrote. "The TSA seems to be so unprofessional about their services."