Heightened security provokes some travelers' separation anxieties

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 03/17/02

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Security is the top priority of nearly everybody moving through airports these days, but some travelers believe the security of their personal belongings is not getting enough attention.

Theft at security checkpoints was a problem before Sept. 11, but the more rigorous screening occurring now can separate travelers from their belongings for longer periods, leaving items even more vulnerable to theft.

At Logan International Airport before a recent trip to Chicago, Chris Carmody of Arlington put his laptop, wireless phone, wallet, keys, and change on the conveyor belt running through the X-ray machine. Then he walked through the metal detector himself.

Neither he nor his belongings set off any alarms, but the security agent pulled him aside anyway. He asked if he could retrieve his personal things first, but was told no. The agent pulled him out of the flow of traffic and started scanning him by hand - about 20 feet, Carmody estimated, from where his belongings had come to rest.

Watching helplessly as $4,000 in personal property sat amid the comings and goings of travelers picking up their own items, Carmody felt as if the simple problem of theft had been overlooked in the herculean effort to improve security at the nation's airports.

"It seems now more than ever that the security checkpoints are a breeding ground for common thefts, especially now that everything has to go through the metal detectors," Carmody said. "I'm quite concerned for my belongings when I go through security, more so than for my personal safety."

Federal and airport officials say they have received a number of complaints about what they call the "laptop phenomenon," thieves making off with computers while their owners are distracted going through security. Such airport heists are undoubtedly easier to pull off now that security has intensified, but the risk for thieves is also higher, with all the gun-toting security personnel about.

"There have been complaints that computers and money have been missing or stolen," said Phil Orlandella, a spokesman for Massachusetts Port Authority who is assigned to Logan. He said Massport's acting executive director, Thomas Kinton, has asked federal security officials at Logan to make every effort to keep travelers being checked within a few feet of their personal belongings.

"He's asked them on several occasions to do that," Orlandella said. "That should be happening at Logan now."

Paul Turk, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees security at all of the nation's airports, said the federal agency has heard complaints as well. He said experimental screening procedures are being evaluated in Baltimore, where passengers are allowed to remain close to their belongings as they go through the security process. No nationwide policy has been formulated yet, he said.

Until one is, both Turk and Orlandella suggested travelers who get separated from their belongings should ask the agent dealing with them if it would be possible to move closer to the items.

"It's a perfectly reasonable request," Turk said.

Equal or unequal?

Four weeks ago, the Transportation Security Administration let it be known that it would treat all passengers at its security checkpoints equally.

Reporters and many airline officials took that to mean airlines would no longer be able to operate special security lanes for preferred passengers - those in first and business class and members of elite airline miles clubs. The whole point of the lane experiments had been to help those passengers, who account for most of the airlines' business, get through security-congested airports faster in the wake of Sept. 11.

It seemed like a logical decision. Taxpayers were now paying for security checkpoints (previously the airlines had paid), so all taxpayers should be treated the same at those checkpoints.

But it wasn't long before word leaked that something had changed. No one is saying much, but it appears the airlines put pressure on the transportation agency and a semantic compromise was developed that allowed both sides to win.

Now no group of passengers gets a security checkpoint system dedicated exclusively to them, but the airlines, which apparently control the lines leading up to the checkpoints, can set up a line for elite passengers, in effect letting them get to the security equipment faster. The only ones left waiting are coach passengers.

Turk, the TSA spokesman, declined to comment on the negotiations that led to the compromise, but talked in general about such regulatory processes. "Typically, in the process of creating regulations, very often what happens when a requirement is stated is that perhaps the consequences are not fully evaluated or contemplated," he said. "You work with the airlines to make it work out. Something like that happened in this case."

Bruce Mohl can be reached by e-mail at mohl@globe.com.