Every time there’s a shutdown or a headline about TSA, the same question pops up: should airport screening be privatized? After spending over two decades in nuclear security, I think we’re asking the wrong question.
In the nuclear world, the guards are private employees—but everything that truly matters is set and enforced by the federal government. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) dictates the physical and psychological standards employees must meet, the depth of their training, how often they requalify on weapons and tactics, and how they perform in live, force-on-force drills against realistic “adversary” teams. Nuclear facilities also use rigorous background checks, continuous behavioral observation, and layered access control to ensure that only thoroughly vetted personnel have unescorted access to critical areas.
It’s a best-of-both-worlds model:
- Private companies provide the people and run day-to-day operations
- The federal regulator sets a tough, non-negotiable bar and relentlessly tests whether those standards work in the real world
The result is not “security theater,” but a system designed around credible threats, measurable performance, and continuous verification.
Now imagine applying that mindset to aviation security. Instead of framing the debate as “federal vs. private,” we keep national standards, threat definitions, and oversight in federal hands—and allow qualified private teams to execute on the front line, under strict, regularly tested requirements.
The real question isn’t who signs the paycheck. The real question is: who sets the standards, how tough are they, and how seriously do we test them?
What do you think—if we took the same standards-driven approach we use in nuclear security, could we get better airport security and a better passenger experience at the same time?
Irma Parone works with organizations to identify and solve people problems that are slowing their business down. She is a speaker, author, and consultant, the president of the Florida Speakers Association, and the founder of Parone Group.
