This week, the news has largely been dominated by the security surrounding the London 2012 Olympic Games. Between the British naval presence on the Thames and the roof mounted air missiles stationed on residential buildings, it appears that the Olympic Games commercial properties are amongst the most heavily protected in the country right now.
However, rising security levels means that transportation networks are also being closely monitored for security flaws, including commercial property airports the length and breadth of the UK. In order to assist this process, it was revealed this week that American security agents are being recruited to redouble personnel, especially in the UK’s largest commercial property airport, London Heathrow.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers will assist with security on US airline flights arriving at UK airports, with the Department of Transport having made an agreement with the TSA in the run up to the Games. The specialist agents will arrive exactly one week before the start of the Olympics next Friday and will be on hand to monitor security for the duration of the Games, leaving one week after the conclusion of the Paralympics.
However, the Americans will play second fiddle to British security officers at commercial property airports across the UK, as they have not been granted access to certain privileges. For example, they will not be allowed to go beyond boarding gates, nor will they have the right to board British aircraft stationed outside terminal buildings.
The additional personnel stationed at Heathrow may prove to be a welcome relief for passengers flying into the airport, as for several weeks now the London airport has been under fire for issues concerning immigration desks. Huge queues formed last week after Border Force allegedly refused to open more than half of the available desks in the arrivals commercial property building. With the eyes of the international community, and even more pertinently, the international press, firmly fixed upon Britain this summer, the Government are keen to demonstrate the country’s capability of dealing with an event of this magnitude smoothly and efficiently – two words that have not been used when describing Heathrow Airport for some time now.
Yet the inclusion of TSA security agents has also been picked up as a contentious issue, following reports of some personnel becoming a little too thorough when processing passengers in American commercial property airports. Photographs and reports of babies, elderly passengers and disabled people being patted down and forced to go through full body searches have spread through the international media like wildfire in the past year, fuelling concerns in Britain that the presence of these officers could put a damper on high spirits of those passing through British commercial property airports.
But with Britain’s commercial property airports distinctly lacking in Border Force personnel, it seems that the Department of Transport has little choice in the matter. The National Audit Office criticised border chiefs for the massive staff cuts in commercial property airport personnel, claiming that the root cause of mass queuing at Heathrow was due to the speed at which staff were laid off.
A spokesman representing London Heathrow said; “The US Transportation Security Administration requested, some time ago, to base a small number of staff at Heathrow and other UK airports to assist the additional numbers of US passengers travelling to and from the UK ahead of the Olympics.
“We agreed to give them access at Heathrow.”
