A Background Check On Bush's Plan For Safer Skies

With airlines running at less than 50% of capacity since Sept. 11, President Bush tried last week to get the nation airborne again. At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, he implored the public to "do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America's great destination spots." Some of Bush's Cabinet secretaries--and even his dad--strapped themselves into commercial planes to "prove" that air travel is safe.

Travelers will need time to test their wings, as well as evidence of real changes in airport security. To that end, Bush announced a series of new federal initiatives. He vowed to make "our airline security stronger and more reliable." Here's a look at the President's plan--and some other high-tech security measures currently available:

ON THE GROUND

Bush wants the Federal Government to supervise passenger and luggage screening--not by staffing those jobs with thousands of newly hired civil servants, but by contracting out to private firms. That's what the airlines do today, but here's the difference: instead of going for the lowest bid and thus settling for minimally trained minimum-wage workers, the government would set employment and national-security standards for airports; it would conduct background checks and purchase and maintain all security equipment. Bush also wants to deploy 4,000 National Guard troops to monitor airports, possibly for months.

Bush's plan seeks to repair what nearly everyone recognizes as a shoddy operation. But is he making a mistake by not federalizing the airport-security force? The airline industry--and some members of Congress--would dearly love for him to do so. In last week's TIME/CNN poll, 77% of respondents favored federal control of airport security, and 63% wanted to put the Army or National Guard in charge of it.

A new federal work force in the airports wouldn't sit right with conservatives, who see it as a Big Government solution. But the real problem is that the work is mind numbing--few people with big law-enforcement ambitions want to make suitcase patrol their beat. "We tried that about 25 years ago," says a security veteran at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the New York City-area airports. "The guys get incredibly bored. That's not why they joined the force." But in Europe, some private companies, under tight government control, have proved they can make the jobs attractive, well paying and effective. Can we pull it off here?

IN THE AIR

Bush's new idea for in-flight security is a very old idea: have federal marshals ride shotgun on the airliners, much as they did in the days of the stagecoach. There are now perhaps three dozen marshals to cover 30,000 daily flights. Finding and training marshals, as Bush proposes, will take months. Still, the idea of armed plainclothes marshals will serve as a deterrent.