These Boots are Made for Walking...
By Victor Anderes
ideo camera in a checked bag? What were they thinking? This is a typical response in our industry when we hear of a passenger submitting a claim for an item of value that is missing from hold luggage. Of course it’s the passenger’s fault! Who could be so naïve as to put anything of value in their checked bag when everyone knows that items get stolen at airports?
V
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...based on IATA’s passenger forecast for 2013 and using 0.03 per 1,000 as a basis, we can expect 1 million passengers to be the victim of baggage theft at a minimum for the year...”
As an industry we have become desensitised to the issue of theft from passengers. While we focus on screening of passengers, baggage and cargo to mitigate the infiltration of prohibited items, we almost ‘accept’ the perpetration of other crimes committed against passengers as long as they fall within certain statistical limits – 0.03 thefts per 1,000 passengers,
hmmm...sounds like a number we can live with. Based on IATA’s passenger forecast for 2013 and using 0.03 per 1,000 as a basis, we can expect 1 million passengers to be the victim
of baggage
theft at a minimum for the year. Let’s be
clear, this excludes those ‘lost bags’ that never seem to be found. Clearly the first priority is to safeguard passengers, employees and assets against more serious crimes and acts of terrorism, but part of that process should include the focus on less serious crimes occurring at airports – these should serve as warning signs for vulnerabilities that exist within the system. Industry jargon refers to theft as ‘pilferage’ which according to the Oxford English Dictionary means “to steal (minor items), esp. in small quantities.” The reality is that theft runs rampant at many airports across the globe. We hear of baggage handlers, airline employees, security screeners and even police officers being arrested for theft on a regular basis. These arrests are only the tip of the iceberg. Theft at
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airports really is not just ‘minor items’ or in ‘small quantities’. Whether it be from passengers, cargo, duty free, airlines' stores, mail facilities or catering kitchens, the amount of theft occurring equates to billions of dollars in losses each year. Let’s, however, focus just on passenger baggage.
The issue that dulls our collective senses is that we do not have a true figure of what thefts at airports cost the industry as a whole. It is difficult to quantify the financial impact. Very few airports maintain a central database of all thefts that occur at that airport. This is either through an inability to do so, as a result of under-reporting or inconsistent reporting, or, quite simply, a desire not to do so for fear of reputational damage in the eyes of the public or prospective tenants. More often than not jurisdictional issues come into play between airport authorities, local police and other stakeholders. No-one wants to be branded ‘the worst airport’ for crime and quite frequently, finger- pointing occurs between the airport authority, local law enforcement, the regulator and the airlines as to who has responsibility for securing passengers’ property. The nature of airports is that many hands are in play when it comes to handling passenger property and this obfuscates the source of the problem even on a local level. Given that our system is global, it is easier to deflect blame towards the up-line, transit or down-line airport rather than to acknowledge that we have a problem in our own back yard. Many passengers travel with the intent of purchasing goods in another country due to availability or lower cost so we cannot expect, in the foreseeable future, that baggage will not contain attractive items with a solid street value. The perpetrators of these crimes
are far from opportunist criminals. While low wages of airport workers may be a contributing factor, we know factually that workers accept these jobs as they know they can ‘supplement’
February 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational
AVSEC OPINION
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