Safer airports cost money: Your Say

Letter to the editor:

The concept of thoroughly vetting aviation workers is not new. Back in the 1990s, a presidential commission recommended that the aviation industry conduct comprehensive background checks on its employees (“Russian tragedy casts harsh light on TSA: Our view”).

The airline industry with its powerful lobbying managed to do as little as possible. The FAA caved. It all came down to money. The same is true today. Thorough background checks are expensive. Airlines are loath to pay for background checks on low-paid employees with frequent turnover.

Screening airport workers as they enter the secure areas would also involve a substantial amount of money. If TSA were to do that at all airports in America, it would require hiring many more screeners. A private security company could do it, but it would have to be paid, too. This problem of vetting aviation employees cannot be fixed on the cheap.

Dan Corson; Riverview, Fla.

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

The reason the Transportation Security Administration doesn’t automatically use a broader database of people with possible links to terrorism, known as TIDE, likely is that the data contained in it can be inaccurate and sometimes unsubstantiated.

— Jerry Braverman

Which database mistakenly had Sen. Ted Kennedy on a no-fly list a decade ago? I think the larger the list you use — the list with more names — the more false positives you may find.

— Dave Cawdell

All boarded baggage should be screened by K-9 units. Little else approaches their capabilities.

— Christopher Dunn