Transportation Security
TSA Canine Program To Enhance Air Cargo Security
Mar 1, 2008
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has implemented a new canine program to enhance explosives detection capabilities in air cargo facilities...
Report Finds Inconclusive Answers To Radiation Detector Test
Mar 1, 2008
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tests of new radiation detection machines last year did not show whether the costly devices performed well enough...
NYC Subway Becomes Home To Improved Security
Feb 7, 2008
In what officials describe as a first for a U.S. mass transit system, teams of police officers armed with submachine guns and bomb-sniffing dogs will soon begin daily patrols of the busiest sections of New York City subways.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said that a major boost in funding from the Department of Homeland Security made the extra protection possible for the city's vast subway system, long considered a potential target for terrorists.
"Whether conventional crime or terrorist threat, we will not let our guard down," Kelly said at a news conference at Grand Central Terminal, where officials announced the increase in security dollars....
Aviation Security Progress Report
By Michael Fickes
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted two studies of the nation's aviation security system during 2007. Both evaluated progress made by...
Walk, Screen and Detect
By Stephanie Silk
In October 2007, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that it would award $52.3 million in contracts to deploy security technology...
10 To Go
Oct 1, 2007
Innovation is changing the landscape of transportation security. Here are some examples of new technologies to watch. Transmitting Video Wirelessly An...
MARITIME SECURITY: Protecting Naval Vessels
Oct 1, 2007
The U.S. Navy protects its ships using what looks like a series of tennis nets sitting on cylindrical-shaped floats that fasten together to form a floating...
PSU Study Assesses The Security Of America's Railroad System
Oct 1, 2007
Two Pennsylvania State University (PSU) faculty members have conducted a study that identifies potential threats to America's railroad system, examines...
A Crash Synopsis
By David Dickinson
In 1985, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DOS) published the original vehicle test barrier methods SD-STD-02.01 to assess...
Man's Best Partner
By Stephanie Silk
Canine teams are a core element of explosives detection. Since Sept. 11, there has been an increased demand for this kind of detection, and proposed legislation...
Scanning Without Embarrassment
By Stephanie Silk
Having a body scan completed at airport security screening can be invasive. Those who are chosen usually at random have their taken, and the often revealing...
Security Firms At Higher Risk For Attack In Iraq
May 31, 2007
Private security contractors became notorious for making money from the invasion of Iraq. But without them, the number of coalition troops in the country would have been significantly higher. And since the peak of the market in 2004, they have faced greater dangers than ever and reduced financial returns, according to the Financial Times.
"It's certainly more dangerous. The number and the sophistication of attacks have risen, as has the level of information the terrorists have regarding our activities," says Jonathan Garratt, managing director of Erinys, London, which has about 1,000 security personnel in Iraq mainly on U.S. government contracts....
Trusted Traveler Programs Grow
May 17, 2007
The slow-developing program to give expedited passage at airport security to trusted travelers who pay a fee is finally gaining traction, reports USA Today.
More than five years after it was proposed following the 9/11 terrorism, trusted traveler programs are operating at six airports. Five more airports in recent weeks have signed with a private partner to operate the government's Registered Traveler program.
And at least four others -- Washington Dulles, Reagan Washington National, Denver and San Francisco -- say they are shopping for partners to run their Registered Traveler programs.
...
Rail Test Center To Evaluate Radiation Detection
May 17, 2007
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon begin conducting multiple projects in the Port of Tacoma, Wash., to evaluate technology and concepts of operations for radiation detection that will scan cargo at various points in transfer from ship to rail. By establishing a Rail Test Center (RTC) at the port, DHS will identify and evaluate radiological and nuclear detection solutions for intermodal rail port facilities that can be used across the country.
"The deployment of radiation portal monitors can be much more challenging at seaports where cargo containers depart the port by rail," says Vayl Oxford, director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), Washington, D.C. ...
SIA Gears Up For Government Summit
May 17, 2007
This year's Security Industry Association (SIA) Government Summit, which takes place on June 11-13 at the Hilton Embassy Row hotel in Washington, D.C., is designed to keep participants up-to-date on policies driving federal procurement decisions and to create a strong, unified industry voice on Capitol Hill. At the Summit, industry leaders and government end-users will hear from the nation's leading policy experts on issues impacting the GSA Schedules Program, TWIC implementation, "earmarking" federal funds for physical security projects, and the SAFETY Act designation process. ...
Industry-Cooperative Employee Screening Plan Announced
May 3, 2007
The Transportation Security Administration, Arlington, Va., American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), Alexandria, Va., Airports Council International -- North America (ACI-NA), Washington, DC, and National Air Transportation Association (NATA), Alexandria, Va., have announced plans to measurably maximize the effectiveness of screening employees at airports.
The six-point plan to harden and bolster employee screening uses a risk-based approach.
"Our strategy is to be nimble, flexible, mobile, and above all, dynamic," says TSA Administrator Kip Hawley. "Effective security requires partners working together within a network of overlapping measures around which terrorists cannot easily engineer. For that reason, we achieve a better overall security result by using our resources flexibly, not tied down at checkpoints checking and re-checking people that work at the airport every day."...
Smart Card Alliance Wary Of Enhanced Driver's Licenses
May 3, 2007
The privacy and security of U.S. citizens would take a back seat to convenience if border states follow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recommendations to pilot long-range, vicinity-read RFID-based state driver's licenses that would double as border crossing cards, according to a statement released by the Smart Card Alliance.
The Alliance recommends that states working on enhanced driver's license pilot programs with DHS retain their right to contribute to the technology specification and consider using more secure contactless smart card technology. This is the same technology used in new, government issued e-passports. It would help states to achieve a fast and secure means for citizens to cross U.S. land and sea borders under the new Western Hemisphere Traveler Initiative (WHTI) guidelines....
Air Cargo Still Vulnerable, Says GAO Report
May 3, 2007
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), and Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) have released a report conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Washington, DC, on Federal efforts to secure U.S.-bound air cargo.
The GAO found that though there have been steps taken to improve security for domestic air cargo, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is still falling short. Three years ago, Congress mandated TSA to develop technology to better identify, track and screen air cargo and issue a final rule to enhance and improve the security of air cargo transported on all passenger and cargo aircraft.
TSA has yet to comply with this mandate. TSA has identified the primary threats but has failed to assess inbound air-cargo vulnerabilities....
CBP Launches Nation's First 'Model Port' at Houston Airport
Apr 6, 2007
Yearlong efforts to establish products and processes to make international travel into the United States more welcoming has resulted in Houston's airport becoming the nation's first model port of entry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which welcomes more than 400 million travelers into the U.S. each year, spearheads the model port effort.
The concept is a joint initiative between Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The program introduces improved signage, multi-lingual explanatory videos and modernized procedures designed to ease the process of arriving in America....
MTA. Seeks Designs for Cameras In Subway Cars
Apr 6, 2007
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA.) has asked two subway car manufacturers to create designs for digital security cameras that could be installed inside the cars, reports The New York Times.
Images from the cameras could be used in criminal investigations and to help investigators in the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
Michael Lombardi, senior vice president for subways of New York City Transit, says the authority had asked Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. and Alstom, the two companies that are producing the latest model of subway car, known as the R160, to propose ways to add security cameras to the cars. Lombardi says the MTA. will review the designs and test them in a small number of cars to examine whether the cameras could withstand bumps, jolts, dust particles and stop-and-go conditions....
Senate Supports Efforts to Keep Border Closed to Mexican Trucks
Apr 5, 2007
The U.S. Senate spoke out against the Bush administration's attempt to allow unfettered access to U.S. highways by Mexican trucks by passing a supplemental appropriations bill March 29 that included a provision to stop the pilot program.
"I applaud the Senate's passage of this important provision," says Jim Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters transportation labor union. "We cannot allow the administration to push through this pilot program before Mexico is able to adhere to the safety and security standards outlined by Congress."
The Senate's provision blocks funding for the pilot program, requires the Transportation Department to publish details of the plan and provides time for public comment. It will also require that the pilot project meet congressionally mandated safety and security standards. ...
Terror Database Growth Raises Concerns
Apr 5, 2007
The database that acts as a terrorist watch list source for airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates has quadrupled in four years and is causing some headaches for those who handle it, reports The Washington Post.
TIDE, an acronym for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It was created to close one of the key intelligence gaps revealed after Sept. 11th: the failure of federal agencies to share what they knew about al-Qaeda operatives.
Since 2003, the number of files in the database has risen from less than 100,000 to 435,000, and officials say the growth of the database is overwhelming the employees who manage it....
TSA Launches Airport-Wide Security Surge
Mar 22, 2007
In the wake of the arrests of two Comair airline employees who allegedly carried 14 guns onto an airplane, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has implemented an airport-wide surge in employee security operations.
According to USA Today, Thomas Anthony Muñoz, 22, was arrested and charged March 5 after he used his airline ID to board a flight at San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport carrying a duffel bag containing 13 handguns, an assault rifle and 8 lbs. of marijuana.
Zabdiel Santiago Balaguer, 22, was arrested March 6 and charged with helping Muñoz....
Chertoff Discusses Port Security at AAPA Meeting
Mar 22, 2007
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff addressed members of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) this week in Washington, D.C. about current and future advances in port security in the United States and abroad.
The AAPA represents port authorities throughout the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean and conducts educational and training programs and provides research and information services for port professionals.
In his remarks, Chertoff addressed the widespread thought that port security officials are being negligent in their inspection practices....
U.S. honing nuclear detection at borders
Mar 8, 2007
Vehicles passing through a busy border crossing are also subject to nuclear radiation scans. Border officials have been perfecting the use of the devices -- even though they are prone to set off alarms for items such as kitty litter, ceramic tile or bananas.
"Nuclear materials such as uranium and plutonium are not the only materials that emit radiation," Vayl Oxford, who directs the Homeland Security Department's nuclear office, told a House Appropriations panel this week....
