Aviation Security Progress Report
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Michael Fickes
The layers include people, policies and processes and technologies.
According to the e-mail, TSA currently employs 300 cargo Transportation Security Inspectors (TSIs), who do nothing but inspect cargo. TSA plans to add 235 more air cargo TSIs by the end of fiscal 2008. Each inspector undergoes training in behavior observation techniques that may make it easier for them to spot suspicious behavior.
In addition, 400 canine explosive detection teams work at U.S. airports. Their responsibilities include random screening of cargo and surveillance of cargo facilities.
Four policy and process programs have been rolled out: a new Certified Cargo Screening Program, Freight Assessment System, Known Shipper Management System and an Indirect Air Carrier Management System.
The Known Shipper program, for example, now has 1.5 million participants. Known Shippers have a documented business relationship with air carriers, have conducted successful preliminary shipments and have had onsite validation of their shipping facility. TSA also vets Known Shippers through additional database to validate their business legitimacy.
Technologies include explosive detection systems (EDSs) and explosive trace detection systems (ETDs).
By the end of 2008, TSA and its predecessor organization will have spent seven years working on aviation security. While focusing on seven unmet performance expectations, the GAO report credited TSA with having achieved great progress. “Meeting statutory mandates to screen airline passengers and 100 percent of checked baggage alone was a tremendous challenge,” the report said. “To do this, TSA initially hired and deployed a federal workforce of more than 50,000 passenger and checked baggage screeners, and installed equipment art the nation's more than 400 commercial airports…”
Then again, the process of providing security is constantly unfolding. As vulnerabilities and threats change, so must the strategies, policies and implementations. “Once one set of holes has been plugged, you have to continue looking for new holes,” Jackson of Rand says. “It requires a systems approach in which every part of the system functions effectively. When something reduces the effectiveness of the system, the system has to change.”
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