Feds tried to lengthen Sky Harbor waits

[FormerOstrich]

I searched and didn't see where this was posted. It was on the front page of the Arizona Republic yesterday (mods: please move if you don't consider lbn). I was stunned when I read this. I can't believe that they put this in writing. Go figure!

The Arizona Republic
Jul. 28, 2004 12:00 AM


Federal authorities responsible for security at the Phoenix airport intentionally lengthened wait times at passenger checkpoints at a time when they were asking Homeland Security administrators in Washington, D.C., to provide more screeners.

...snip

"I directed that the Screening Managers redistribute screeners as appropriate today as a beginning step in our effort to increase our wait times," Carter wrote to his supervisor, Marcia Florian, federal security director for Arizona.

...snip

Late last week, Florian said the e-mails reflected a plan to deal with staffing shortages, not to dupe headquarters into approving additional workers.

"That's not it," Florian said. " . . . All this is is a management of manpower to make sure the baggage operation is staffed to the point where it should be."

...snip

Fierberg said he has follow-up memos that clarify the plan, but he declined to make them available to The Republic.In Carter's e-mail, he stated that shifting staff away from checkpoints would allow passenger lanes to be shut down so wait times could be lengthened.

"My initial goal is to man our checkpoints to about a 15-min wait time," Carter wrote.

...more

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0728screeners28.html