Augmenting the Air Marshal program.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Security Beat - Brief Article

The newly-created Transportation Security Administration is expanding the Federal Air Marshal program, but there are limits to what the marshals can accomplish, a top law enforcement official said.

"There are 26,000 flights a day," said Mark Winscher, coordinator of the FBI's non-lethal weapons program at Quantico, Va. He spoke at a recent conference on non-lethal weapons, sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association. "They're not going to be putting air marshals on board every one of those flights." Instead, he said, authorities are considering a number of alternatives, including providing additional training for aircrews, issuing them non-lethal weapons and...