Screeners Take Posts at LAX

The first wave of new federal checkpoint screeners begins work today at Los Angeles International Airport--noticeably upbeat about their jobs and more ethnically diverse than their new colleagues around the country.

The initial group of 450 screeners takes over the checkpoints in Terminals 7 and 8, wearing crisp white shirts, pressed navy trousers and maroon clip-on ties, all part of the uniform required by the federal Transportation Security Administration.

After sitting through 40 hours of classroom instruction last week in which they learned how to use security equipment, the new hires will now undergo 60 hours of on-the-job training.

They are the first of four groups of passenger screeners who will take charge at LAX checkpoints in the next month. These 1,600 screeners will be joined by an additional 1,600 federal workers who will operate new bomb-detection equipment in airport terminals by the end of the year.

The force frees up screeners working for private contractors in Terminals 7 and 8 to reapply for their jobs with the TSA. Current screeners must pass a series of tests and provide proof that they’re U.S. citizens before they can be rehired.

The rollout that began at LAX this week is mandated by an aviation security law passed by Congress after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It requires the federal government to hire and train thousands of screeners to work at the nation’s 429 commercial airports by Nov. 19. Federal screeners currently work at 142 of these facilities.

Officials emphasized the ethnicity of workers in the first group of federalized screeners at LAX, saying the group is representative of the Los Angeles area. About 70% of the workers are minorities. That’s well below the 98% of the current screening work force at LAX, but a higher percentage than among other new federal screeners around the country.

At other airports, minorities have found it difficult to land the new, higher-paying positions because of citizenship requirements and pre-employment assessment tests.

At U.S. airports with federalized screeners, about 58.3% are non-Latino white, 11% Latino, 21.8% African American, 3.4% Asian, 1% American Indian and about 4% other ethnicities, according to TSA statistics.

At LAX, about 26.6% of the 450 new screeners are non-Latino white, 19.1% Hispanic, 35.5% African American, 11% Asian and 1.4% American Indian and about 6% other ethnicities, statistics show.

“This force is reflective of the community where we live and play,” said LAX Federal Security Director David Stone. “This is a result of a lot of people reaching out to various ethnic organizations in Los Angeles.”

Many of the new workers said they jumped at the chance to be a federal screener because they felt compelled to give back to their country after the terrorist attacks.

“I knew someone on the first flight that hit the World Trade Center,” said Dorothy Denis, a 37-year-old former postal worker. “They inspired me to get involved and to do something to help.”

At a graduation ceremony for the new screeners Monday, Stone gave the group a pep talk, encouraging them to remember the importance of their work.

“About 1.4 million people applied to be federal screeners, and the TSA hired 39,000. You’re a member of a very select group,” Stone said. “Since 9/11, we all know what a threat terrorism is to our country. What you’ve decided to take upon yourself is service to your country, not just a job.”

The capacity crowd in a conference room at the Proud Bird restaurant, just outside the airfield’s perimeter, burst into applause, waving miniature American flags.

Stone hopes the upbeat attitude of the new work force, in marked contrast to the depression that dogs private screeners who believe they were blamed unjustly for the terrorist attacks, will help him keep new workers on the job. Historically, turnover rates among security screeners have been as high as 500% at some airports.

A handful of the first wave of new federalized screeners at LAX are naturalized citizens--a process the TSA has been encouraging to help retain many of those in the current work force. About 40% of employees who work for private screening companies at LAX are not U.S. citizens.

“I always wanted to do a federal job,” said Lubna Kamar, 24. “This country gave me my education. It’s a way to repay your country.”

San Pedro resident Kamar, who is Arab American and immigrated to the U.S. when she was 12, began work as a federal screener at LAX this week alongside her father, Nabil Kamar, 55, who formerly worked as a business manager and a computer salesman.

Kamar and her father will be trained this week by the TSA’s mobile screening task force, a group that travels among the nation’s airports mentoring new federal security workers.

In other airport news Monday, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee accepted reports compiled by law enforcement agencies who responded to the deadly Independence Day shootings at LAX.

The reports offered a generally positive review of the response by the 10 agencies that participated in the investigation. But they also noted several areas that need improvement, such as better coordination among agencies.

Councilman Jack Weiss, who requested the documents, said he plans to continue to investigate the city’s preparedness to respond to a major assault at its international airport.