Troubled Security Firm Fires Its CEO
Argenbright Plans Reform at Airports
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By Greg Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 10, 2001; Page A01
Argenbright Security Inc., the embattled contractor that has become a symbol of national unease about airport security, ousted its
founder yesterday and declared it would increase the training and pay of its workforce and put more screening personnel at
checkpoint X-ray machines.
The nation's leading airport security contractor, with about 40 percent of the U.S. market, Argenbright handles baggage screening
at Reagan National and Dulles International airports and just won a contract for work at a major concourse at
Baltimore-Washington International.
Yesterday's announcement came as the future of airport security contracting is in doubt, with House and Senate conferees
meeting over competing bills for reforming the system. Senators and House Democrats favor a measure that would make
baggage screening a federal function, while House Republicans and the Bush administration want the government to closely
supervise private contractors. Currently, airlines are responsible for hiring companies to provide security.
While Argenbright has tended to take the brunt of the public blame for recent security failures -- it had screeners working at two
of the three airports the terrorist hijackers flew out of on Sept. 11 -- the problems go beyond any one segment of the system.
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta has warned airlines not to put convenience ahead of security and urged Federal
Aviation Administration agents to be more aggressive in enforcing safety guidelines.
Dan Boelsche, a former Argenbright operations manager at Dulles, suggested that the problems go even further. "The public has
some fault in it. They didn't want good security [before Sept. 11], they wanted speed. They wanted a passenger's bill of rights."
Argenbright said it would invest a "substantial" amount of its own money to carry out the changes in its operations, though it also is
trying to get its airline clients to kick in funding, and it will need help from government agencies to conduct more thorough
background checks of its employees.
An official with the Department of Transportation said Argenbright's proposals were a good first step. "We'll see," the official
said. "We've heard promises before. We're looking for results."
Argenbright's repeated involvement in airport security breaches has created increasing political problems for the company. One
came this week, when Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) publicly objected to the decision to hire Argenbright for security
at BWI.
On Wednesday, three Argenbright baggage screeners were fired at Chicago's O'Hare Airport for letting a man through their
checkpoint with a bag filled with knives. Federal officials recently accused the company of continuing to hire people with criminal
convictions despite a court order prohibiting the practice. They also found that seven out of a group of 20 baggage screeners at
Dulles could not pass a basic skills test, and they arrested seven screeners at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for being
illegal aliens.
The problems at Argenbright have wounded the ability of House Republicans to assure the public that contractors can be trusted
with airport security -- legislation that the companies themselves have heavily promoted. Seeking to stanch the damage, House
Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tx.) yesterday complained that "Argenbright has become a synonym for failure" in a letter to the
company's corporate parent, Securicor Security PLC of Britain.
Citing Argenbright's "epic incompetence," DeLay urged Securicor to clean out the company's management team. Several hours
later, it did just that -- though sources said the move had been in the works for several weeks.
Frank A. Argenbright Jr., who founded the company with $500 and a polygraph machine in the basement of the Atlanta Airport
Sheraton in 1979, stepped down from the board of directors and was replaced as chief executive by David Beaton, 49, a longtime
Securicor executive.
Beaton, a 20-year veteran of the British army, said in an interview that Frank Argenbright's departure "will be a significant
milestone in changing the direction in which the company is going."
Beaton said the company will move quickly to adjust its training practices to conform to the House and Senate bills' requirement of
40 hours of classroom training and 60 hours of on-the-job training for all baggage screeners. Currently, screeners are required to
take only 12 hours of study and 40 hours of on-the-job-training.
Argenbright also will begin stationing a second person at all checkpoint X-ray machines, he said. In addition, the company plans to
have its screeners search any bag that contains an item that X-rays cannot penetrate, to call in law enforcement officers if a
prohibited item is confiscated, and to search the carry-on bags of any person with a suspicious item.
Argenbright already has begun increasing wages. A checkpoint screener at Dulles confirmed yesterday that he is now making $11
an hour -- nearly double what he was paid before Sept. 11.
Beaton said the company was not making the changes because there was something wrong with Argenbright.
"There are new threats," Beaton said. "It's my job to take the whole industry forward in terms of quality of service being
delivered."
The industry has been plagued by poor quality as cash-strapped airlines sought out the lowest bidders for security contracts.
Several companies backed out of the market rather than try to strip down services and deal with the churn of low-wage workers
leaving for higher pay -- among them Wackenhut Corp., the company Argenbright is replacing at BWI.
Argenbright's 40 percent share made it king of the companies that remained, but industry analyst Mark Marcon of Wachovia
Securities in Richmond said that was a dubious distinction. "In an industry with a lousy reputation, they were the best," he said.
At the same time, Marcon added, Argenbright tried to offer better service than its competitors. By ensuring that it always had
enough people at every checkpoint, for instance, Argenbright helped airlines keep passengers moving. That encouraged airlines to
hire Argenbright for additional services, such as skycapping and escorting wheelchairs, Marcon said.
But there have been serious problems at Argenbright. Most notoriously, the company's operations at the Philadelphia airport from
1995 to 1999 were so corrupt that it led to the criminal convictions of three managers, and Argenbright paid $1.55 million in fines
and restitution.
Court documents show that the managers, trying to hire people as quickly and cheaply as possible, altered applicants' résumés so
they would not have to run criminal background checks on them. They hired baggage screeners who had been convicted of
crimes including drug possession, aggravated robbery and illegal firearms possession. They created fake Graduate Equivalency
Degrees for new hires who had never finished high school.
Instead of giving newly hired screeners the mandated 12 hours of classroom training, the managers would just show them a
45-minute video, give them the answers to an FAA skills test, hand them a uniform and put them to work.
Argenbright is on a five-year probation for those violations, and a follow-up investigation this year showed that the company
continued to hire people with criminal convictions at several locations.
Cathal Flynn, who retired as head of security for the FAA last year, recently joined the board at Argenbright to oversee its efforts
to come into compliance with federal requirements. He said he believes the Philadelphia situation was an isolated incident, but that
Argenbright needed to strengthen its ' oversight.
The deeper problem, he said, is that "the supposition that everyone was working on was that the United States was relatively
safe." Now that everyone knows that's wrong, Flynn said, Argenbright and the whole system must change, "but we're being left in
a state of uncertainty" until Congress decides what to do.
Staff writers Nicole C. Wong, Don Phillips and James V. Grimaldi, and special correspondent Adi Bloom, contributed to
this report.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company |
