TrendTSA's emphases: Liquid explosives, shoes, and behvioral detection

Last August a plot was uncovered in London to smuggle liquids past airport security and then, on board, mix them to create an explosive and deadly cocktail. Since then travelers have been banned from bringing liquids in quantities larger than three ounces in carry-on luggage on board. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief Kip Hawley says we can expect at least another year of the policy. “The two big issues that we hear about from customers are shoes and not really understanding the liquids policy,” he said. “We’re putting a lot of focus on it.” The Chicago Tribune reports that the agency is working with the National Laboratories to develop reliable testing devices for liquid explosives. “We expect it will pay dividends whether it’s 2008 or 2009, but it won’t be 2007.”

The TSA is working with six airports to provide an option for harried travelers with prohibited items such as liquids: The Mailsafe Express program allows passengers to mail prohibited items or have them held at the airport for their return without ever leaving the security line. A TSA officer escorts the passenger to an ATM-looking kiosk and puts the prohibited item in an envelope and in the kiosk. The TSA officer then returns to screening duties. The passenger types in mailing information, swipes a credit card, and proceeds through security. It takes about two minutes, according to the TSA. The service costs $8.95 plus postage and up, depending on where it is being mailed.

Hawley also dos not see an end anytime soon for the need to examine passengers’ shoes. “We see more shoes than anyone else on Earth,” he said. “I will be the happiest person there is when we can screen shoes on people’s feet.” Technology has yet to present a viable alternative to removing shoes and having them X-rayed. “This is not just something we forgot to take off based on Richard Reid,” said Hawley. “It’s a current concern… We have a lot of accumulated evidence on methods that they use for constructing IEDs” (improvised explosive devices), he said. “That kind of activity is in fact consistent with using shoes bombs.”

The TSA has often been criticized for being reactive in its policies, enacting security measures after a threat becomes public rather than anticipating potential threats. The agency is moving to be less reactive and more proactive. As we have written a few weeks ago, in a major shift in emphasis, it is training its officers in “person-based screening.” Not to be confused with profiling based on race or ethnicity, person- or behavior-based screening is looking for tell-tale types of behavior that indicate a terrorist’s intent to do harm. “If we fall into the trap that the next round of terrorists look like the 9-11 terrorists, that’s not a bet I’m willing to make,” Hawley says. Person-based screening “has to do with involuntarily human behaviors.” Some 600 officers have been redeployed from behind X-ray machines where they try to find things that can pose a threat and put out among the public where they have been trained to detect suspicious behaviors. The TSA is moving to take over checking identification of travelers, giving them the opportunity to interact more closely with the traveling public and, at least in theory, be able to detect people with ill intent and pull them aside for secondary screening.

Checking people rather than things adds a layer of security that could potentially intercept terrorists. “They will use weapons that are created around the security measurers that are in place,” said Hawley. As many as 2,000 security officers, both uniformed and plainclothes, will be trained and redeployed in the coming year, Hawley says. Since Congress is unlikely to authorize an increase in the number of screeners, Hawley is looking to technology to relieve some of burden of the screening of things, including X-ray machines that take a more sophisticated picture of carry-on bags. “It will allow us to make judgments about carry-on bags more quickly,” freeing up personnel from behind the machines, Hawley said. Some of the new machines are deployed at Los Angeles International Airport, he said.

Longer term, Hawley is hoping to ease the congestion and stress of the checkpoint while at the same time enhancing security. “Now when I see people coming through there is a look of resignation, of not really understanding why they’re doing it,” he said. “Calming down the checkpoint, making it less congested, people will feel more welcome.”