This month’s announcement by the Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), Thomas Quinn, that he would retire effective February 3, was the latest in a series of events that highlights new challenges, and perhaps opportunities, to finally improve both the air marshal and Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) programs.

Quinn faced widespread criticism from his frontline officers and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association for requiring air marshals to adhere to a dress code and other operational procedures that made them easily identifiable aboard aircraft.  He also secretly opposed the FFDO program while publicly supporting it, by authoring a 2004 internal memo that resisted legislative improvements because FFDOs, he said, were not trained to “execute search warrants, question suspects or testify in court.”  While Quinn did not even have official authority over the FFDO program at the time he wrote the memo, he was one of the bureaucrats originally responsible for sabotaging it in its inception.

On Quinn’s watch, the attrition rate among air marshals skyrocketed and tens of thousands of pilots refused to volunteer for the FFDO program due to its onerous applications and operational hurdles.  Some reports indicated that roughly 800 air marshals planned to leave the Service for the Border Patrol when Quinn “decided to retire.”

Air marshals are looking forward to working with a new director.  Likewise, FFDOs should pay close attention to who the Bush Administration selects because the FFDO program will soon be realigned with the air marshal program and the new FAM Director will operate both programs.

The new FAM Director will take the reigns of an organization in a serious state of flux.  Last December, TSA, which recently got the FAM program back from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch, announced air marshals would begin patrolling non-federal ground transportation systems like subways, trains and cruise ships.  Since, by some accounts, there are less than 2000 air marshals, many in non-flying supervisory positions, to cover some 28,000 flights a day, it is hard to imagine how the Service could even consider removing the few it has from the airline industry to address threats an order of magnitude lower than that which a commandeered airliner represents.

Sources suggest air marshals currently cover less than 2% of commercial airline flights – at a cost to taxpayers of almost $700 million per year!  Contrast this with the fact that if the armed pilots program were simply streamlined and its onerous bureaucracy removed, 97% of airline flights would be protected by FFDOs at an annualized cost of only $29 million, freeing the air marshal program to mature and become more specialized – and therefore, more impactful.

Yet, even as TSA relaxed public contraband restrictions on airplanes last December, over the objections of flight and cabin crews and its own air marshals; even as it sustained increased air marshal attrition and removed marshals from flights; it did nothing to improve airline security in other areas to mitigate the obvious net decline in security.

In fact, another of the TSA’s recent, little observed actions has been to quietly reclassify its bag screeners as “Transportation Security Officers” under federal classification 1802.  The TSA’s intent (yes, they have confirmed it publicly) is to enable baggage screeners to easily become – sit down – federal air marshals!  We’re not joking!  Current air marshals, pilots, FFDOs, and flight attendants, almost universally oppose such a move, understandably concerned about having a poorly qualified “air marshal” aboard with perhaps no previous law enforcement experience at all. 

There already exists a process for interested applicants to apply for the Federal Air Marshal Service.  There is very little reason to remove application restrictions to favor baggage screeners.  The move may be intended to bolster the ranks of air marshals by assigning bag screeners to the program to mitigate air marshal attrition, and/or to try to hide how few true air marshals there are by lumping thousands of bag screeners into the same classification.  In any event, we believe the move will result in a dramatic decline in the quality of air marshals and may present serious safety issues for flight crews and passengers.

In APSA’s opinion, it will take strong, committed and incorruptible leadership to successfully manage the FAM and FFDO programs and to implement successful strategies that encourage officers and remove bureaucratic restrictions, to enhance airline security.  It will take an individual who leads from the front, supports frontline officers and is dedicated not to bureaucracy and the appearance of security, but to the fact of it, over all other concerns.

APSA is currently working with air marshal associations and other entities behind the scenes to suggest certain potential candidates to Administration officials so that the new FAM Director will enjoy the strong support of his or her frontline officers in both the FAM and FFDO programs.  We will keep you updated, anticipating the possibility of requesting your operational support.

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