Passenger(s) Count!

Recently us pilots have become more and more concerned about the lack of accurate "passenger counts" A passenger count is a sheet the gate agent sends to the pilots saying how many people checked in for the flight, and that number should match how many people on board. It is sad, but more often than not the count is wrong. How can they get this wrong? I mean are people sneaking onto the planes? Are they getting on wrong planes? Worst of all the gate agents rarely care to find out what causes the error as they are in a hurry not to delay the aircraft.

We are just concerned as this may be a security issue. I am sure that the FAA, or the Tombstone agency(as we call it, cause they don't do anything unless people die) will start to enforce this more stricktly when something bad happens.

That being said 99% of the Captains do an outstanding job making sure the job is done right and accuratly. Unfortunatly this isn't their job, but if we didn't do anything that isn't our job, no planes would ever takeoff anywhere. I just give credit to the great pilots who work so hard to make this poorly managed industry run.