We’ve talked about airport security on this blog on other occasions, so when a barrage of airport and airline information flooded the Internet, we felt it important to bring it to our readers’ attention.  It would seem that the airline industry is doing pretty well despite the economic crisis.   We can only hope that the security systems employed at airports and by airlines are doing equally as well if not more so.

Verified Identity Pass, Vigilant Solutions and Flo Corp. we the three companies approved by the Transportation Security Administration to pre-screen frequent fliers using finger-prints, iris scans and background checks. The customers of all three companies paid up to 200 dollars for an ID card that would let them speed through security. However, not long ago all three were shut down or suspended, in some cases even before customers could use their new identification cards.

Verified Identity Pass dominated the field until June 2009, when it closed, its competition following its footsteps not long after. The initial fall was blamed on an inability to negotiate with creditors, but many feel it was the result of poor management.   Company clients are in an uproar at having to stand in line again, but those of us who worry about flight security are hard-pressed to feel sorry for them.  Paying a large sum of money does not guarantee security.

For 40 years, Delta Air Lines had special customer service agents nicknamed “red coats” in most major airports. However, in 2005, when Delta filed for bankruptcy protection, these agents were cut to save money. Now having recovered from their fear of bankruptcy, Delta is bringing back their “red coat” agents who will be able to answer any questions and even print boarding passes from hand-held devices. Their return was announced summer 2008, a year later Delta is employing a strong number of 600 “red coat” customer service agents in some of the larger airports in the United States.

Of the 100 busiest airports in the nation, Long Beach Airport had the lowest average domestic airfare for the first quarter of 2009, according to a report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Their average was only 207 dollars even when taxes were included while the highest average price went to Huntsville International Airport in Alabama at 505 dollars.

Long Beach also came fourth on the report for the biggest year-to-year average price decrease with a 16% drop.  Long Beach visitors weren’t only pleased with the price decrease, but also the fact that the airport’s security check flows smoothly and quickly.  Of course, this could have more to do with the fact that Long Beach is a small airport than expert management.  It’s more expensive counterpart, Huntsville, incorporated a security screening center as part of a multimillion dollar expansion in 2007, which might explain higher taxation.

-Xela Shultis & Justine Bayod Espoz

When a fellow student accused Savana Redding in 2003 of giving out prescription strength ibuprofen at school, she was required to remove her clothing to complete a search for the drugs in question.  The court ruled that the school officials had no evidence that students were in any immediate danger, nor did they have any grounds to strip-search the teen, as there was nothing suggesting that the pills may have been in her bra or underwear except that they were nowhere else to be found.

Many people are shocked that it took the US government six long years to decide that forcing an eighth-grader to strip in school, without first contacting her mother, is an unjust and humiliating act, making this a “moral victory” for many.

The Court has laid down limitations on school officials regarding the use of strip-searches, something that worries Justice Clarence Thomas, the one Supreme Court member who ruled against Redding.  Thomas feels that the court has now signaled to all wrongdoing students the “safest place to secrete contraband in school.”  While his concern is valid, the rest of the Court felt that there was a line that should not be crossed and that Principal Wilson had done just that, demonstrating a gross “abuse of authority” according to Justice Ginsburg.

Due to Thomas’ concern and the fact that Redding’s rights were not “clearly established” in a situation such as this, the Court ruled that Wilson could not be held responsible for financial compensation. Although this is a crushing blow to the Redding family’s lawsuit, Savana is not disappointed.  Because of what happened to her, the rights of students are now very “clearly established.”

-Xela Shultis

Who would have guessed that this tradition of door-to-door missionary duty would lead to salvation of another kind?  Apparently, the Orem, Utah-based (a town with a mostly-Mormon population) company Pinnacle Security did.

When millions of traditional jobs dried up last year at the start of the recession, at least 100,000 Americans became “direct salespeople,” otherwise known as door-to-door salesmen. More than 15.1 million people are now selling items such as cosmetics and household items door to door.

Pinnacle Security took this business model and ran with it, and now approximately two-thirds of Pinnacle’s 1,800 sales representatives for the summer are former Mormon missionaries.  Although many former missionaries work for other direct-sales companies, Pinnacle has deployed them in 75 cities nationwide.

All Mormon men in their early twenties are required to work as missionaries for the Mormon faith, to test the fortitude of their faith and to spread the word of Mormonism. In effect, they’ve been training for this job their whole lives.  Sent to foreign countries for a year at a time, these men become fluent in the languages of the countries: Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, etc.  They all grown thick skins and seem almost immune to rejection, and most importantly, they learned how to talk to people.

Interest in security products is up this year – a recession indicator – as people react to a perceived increase in crime that is not necessarily the reality.  And while interest is up, the ability to pay for security systems is down.  Many consumers interested in security products are unable to pass the credit checks Pinnacle requires.  As Pinnacle struggles to attract consumers by charging less than a hundred dollars for installation and only $40 per month, it is apparent that the recession is hitting hard and that even weathered ex-missionaries will have to give it their all to clinch some much need sales.

-Justine Bayod Espoz and Kaitlin Cimini

Photo by Greg Robbins on Flickr