All Eyes On Alert At MIA During Busy Travel Season
MIAMI (CBS4) -- As one of the busiest travel times of the years is less than a week away, anyone traveling through the nation's airports better get ready for heightened security and delays during their trips.
"I'm all for safety, but it seems like we've taken away our privacy and freedom," traveler Craig Worsley said. "And it's getting more and more difficult to get around the country, and it seems like the terrorists are winning."
And those delays could start growing here in Miami. Miami International Airport held a special training session Friday. The training session involved a security method called Behavior Pattern Recognition.
BPR training, which teaches employees to identify and report suspicious behavior, was launched at MIA in 2006 as a voluntary program. MIA is the only U.S. airport to make this training mandatory and now has most of its 30,000-plus employees trained in BPR.
But it's not just BPR that may get travelers riled up. Travelers can also expect the Transportation Security Administration to be on high alert. New, controversial pat-down searches will be enforced if secondary screenings are triggered.
Passengers have been giving mixed reactions to the new security measures, with most saying they don't like having the enhanced pat-downs, but most saying it's just something that has to be done.
But the new measures by TSA is also drawing the ire of Congressmen, including central Florida congressman John Mica. He is saying that instead of utilizing TSA employees, airports should exercise the option under the act creating the TSA that allows them to hire private security screeners.
Only a handful of airports across the country have gone for the private option, but the list includes Orlando Sanford International Airport.
"More local control, more response to complaints, more review, more accountability, better efficiency," Larry Dale of Sanford International Airport said of why the airport made the switch.
Still, even if airports go private, the security at airports would still be overseen by the federal government. And federal security experts say that even though passengers may be getting tired of the new security measures, safety is the ultimate goal.
"People understand that this is for their protection and if it's unpleasant for a few minutes, hey if you don't want to be in public view you can ask for a private screening room, but it's far less unpleasant than having 14 ounces of simtec explosives go off three rows behind you," said Mark Hatfield of Miami International Airport.
