Transportation Security
Terrorism and Transportation Conference Concludes In New York
Aug 7, 2008
More than 700 law enforcement personnel, intelligence professionals and private sector officials attended the Terrorism and Transportation Conference in New York, hosted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)....
TSA Announces Security Recommendations for Motor Carriers
Jul 24, 2008
To help ensure the secure transportation of potentially dangerous materials, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced a set of voluntary security recommendations for safe mobility across the nation’s highways....
Airport Employees Get Screened Like Passengers
Jun 26, 2008
Airport workers are part of a test ordered by Congress that aims to find out whether aviation security can be improved by screening employees every time they enter a restricted zone....
TWIC Help Desk Not Up To Standards
Jun 26, 2008
Mismanagement of the TWIC help desk, the contractor-run telephone service that is supposed to help workers and employers with problems related to the Transportation Worker Identification Card, is having a profoundly negative effect on the men and women who comprise "the valuable eyes and ears of our nation’s transportation system," says U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security....
TSA Launches Employee Screening Pilot Programs At Seven Airports
May 29, 2008
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has launched 90-day employee screening pilots at seven airports as a requirement of the Omnibus Appropriations Act passed by Congress in January 2008....
CBP Now Accepting Global Entry Pilot Program Applications
May 15, 2008
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun processing applications for the Global Entry pilot program designed to expedite the screening and processing of low-risk, frequent international travelers entering the United States....
Boost On Passenger Security Fee Opposed By Panel
May 15, 2008
Senate Commerce Committee leaders have voiced opposition to a proposed increase in the passenger security fee intended to fund airport inline baggage screening systems....
Iris Readers Speed Travelers Through Security
May 1, 2008
Verified Identity Pass Inc., New York, the operator of the Clear (flyclear.com) airport security fast-pass system, is deploying biometric iris readers...
Technology At The Ports
Larry Anderson Stephanie Silk Michael Fickes Rafi Bhonker
The Port of Los Angeles, located in San Pedro Bay, is Southern California's 7,500-acre gateway to international commerce. Throughout 43 miles of waterfront...
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....
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...
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...
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."...
