Security Changes After 9/11...Are We Changing Back? Should We?

0:00So a lot changed after that morning on 9-11, particularly in our airports, you used to be able to go and meet somebody at the gate or take somebody to the gate. That's right. Pick somebody up from the gate. Yes. That all went away after 9-11. You also couldn't bring liquids to certain kinds of liquids. That's right. After what? 2006, there was a terrorist attempt using liquids. So that all went away. But now there might be a way for you to get to the gate to meet your loved one or your friend or to somebody to the gate. Escort somebody, maybe hang out with somebody who's on a layover ATW exactly. It's called gate side by TSA precheck and TSA, the Transportation Security Administration is allowing approved non-travelers to pass through airport security and enter the secure side of participating airports. There are a number of them, I think 13 nationwide, including Detroit Metro. Even if you don't have a plane ticket. Right. Let's talk about it. Mary Skiaval, the former

1:00inspector general with US Department of Transportation joins us once again. Mary, good morning. It's good to have you. It's odd. It feels like this is a time gone by. This doesn't even feel like it happened. It's been so long. Why would TSA be doing this now? That is a very good question. Not only time gone by, but intelligence gone by. You know, first of all, not every form of transportation you do this. For example, take to sell a train, the train in New York City or DC. You can't get up to the side of the train and see somebody off. No, they take your tickets in the terminal and then you go down the track. I mean, the idea that they're quote bringing back the airport experience. Now, I'm old enough to have flown in and out of the old terminal at Detroit for a long time. Now, that was experience, but not one that Bogey and Bergman were going to put on the big screen, you know, with Rick and Elson and Kasa Blanca. I think this is revisionist history

2:01in a bit of nostalgia. I mean, pretty soon they're going to park a 57 Chevy at the at the terminal so you can feel nostalgic. But let's get real. First of all, the TSA every year takes about seven, almost 7,000 guns off of people and 94% of them are loaded. And when the tests are done on the TSA performance rate, now I like the TSA because it was worse before the TSA, not better. When people think it was better before the TSA had all these rules, it was not. They're just forgetting what it was really like. The TSA test failure rate when the various testing teams and that's what I used to do, some of what I used to do, I was Inspector General, we test the airport security, which was then run by the airlines, even today the TSA failure rate is 95% on picking up objects. Also, most airports do not have sufficient seating at peak hours. They don't have enough facilities, restaurants, food, bathrooms. If anybody's been in the Delta clubs lately at Detroit, they know,

3:09they're packed. And so I don't think this makes a lot of sense and people did not think it out. And they're aware of that. That's why it's only a test program. But most important, it was for our security. Can you imagine the lines backed up at TSA? There have been horrendous lines this summer. Now you can put the entire Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop in to go see their troop leader come home from the Jamboree or whatever they do, I forget. Well, I was a Girl Scout. But this makes no sense because not only are aircraft a target of terrorists, airports and crowds and lines that airports are targets of terrorists, terrorists have attacked airports in the United States, in Europe, in England, in Italy. And there have been bombings at shootings, even at the counters and bag claims in the United States, even before security. So it definitely harms our security. It is going to increase crowds and problems. Whether you kiss somebody goodbye at the TSA,

4:12you know, at checkpoint or the long line at the TSA or you kiss them at the gate, I don't think that's going to make a big difference in, you know, the affection program. The other problem, you know, is who's paid for all this? Well, let's face it, passengers and airlines pay for most of the aviation United States. Just look on your ticket. If you have a paper ticket, look on your computer printout and you will see that it's ticketed passengers that pay for security and TSA. If I have paid for and I pay every year for clear, I pay for the TSA pre-check, I pay for it all. But if I get there and I find out that the Red Wings Booster Club, probably 5,000 members, is going to go in and greet people one day, I'm not going to be real happy because I have paid to cut down on the line. Right, right. And I think they're forgetting who actually pays for your ticket taxes. There's other taxes, fuel taxes, et cetera, that go to pay for the runways

5:15and taxuas and all that. It goes into the aviation trust fund. And we have the missing this country that travelers pay for aviation. Well, if we have paid for aviation, putting people in the system who have not is a constant event. Right. I don't think you think that this gate access for non-trivelers is going to become commonplace in airports nationwide. But it should in two cases. I do have exceptions. I'm a lawyer after all, so I have access. First of all, children traveling alone. The court of the United States of America routinely order children as young as five to fly, you know, for custody and visitation and all that. It's poor little kids and I've been, ain't I, I love kids, they can put them next to me on the plane any day. And I've been next to little kids who've been ordered to do this on aircrafts and they're terrified and they've, you know, been, you know, shuttled off to the gate with some airline employee, et cetera. If you're seeing off a minor child, there definitely should be an exception for that and you ought to be able to

6:19do that, particularly if you have a court order that this poor child has to go do this. Second, if someone has mobility issues and they have medical equipment, the other problem is, you know, poor person gets dropped off. They have a, you know, they have a heart monitor. They have a blood pump and the, the wheelchair is not given to you where you get dropped off. You have to go to the ticket counter and then they bring your wheelchair to you if you have reserved one in advance. I have seen poor people struggling with all kinds of equipment this fat and the everything. I have seen mobility people in wheelchairs, they're sitting there crying. This is, this is not decent. Yeah. And so if someone has a wheelchair and they have equipment, they should be allowed a family member or, you know, someone at F-scort to help them through this system that they should be allowed some dignity and some of that. Yeah. And the council rest her case, Mary Skiaval, thank you. Appreciate your time as always. Thank you. Yeah, we'll talk again very soon. Coming up on the other side, we'll hear from Eric Shawne, the Fox senior reporter

7:23on his reporting that day. And what's happened since it's coming up.