Gretchen's Take: Why aren't airport workers screened daily?

There's no federal requirement for employees to go through metal detectors, and I'm not OK with that

Last week when the Egypt Air flight went down, much was made about who we give access to at our airports here in the United States. You may be surprised to find out this – that while the TSA is busy screening all of us going through airport security, less attention is given to the equally large number of airport workers.

I was shocked to find out that there's no federal requirement for any of those employees -- caterers, store workers, mechanics and baggage handlers -- to go through metal detectors when they go to work each day -- except for in Miami and Orlando.

Yes, the FBI and TSA conduct security threat assessments which include checks for criminal history records and immigration status, checks against terrorism databases and watch lists, and checks for records indicating any lack of mental capacity.

There's also a disqualifying crimes screening.

So why isn't there daily screening? A group analyzing it recently said it would divert limited resources from other critical security functions. Like what? So while we all still take off our shoes and throw away our water bottles before going through, all of those workers are walking through with no metal detector. I don't know about you, but I'm not ok with that.

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