The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is considering adding another trusted traveler category to its risk-based approach to security screening at airport checkpoints to allow highly vetted travelers to speed through the checkpoint with barely a stop, an agency official said on Tuesday.
The Expedited Plus screening lane, which would be for travelers that receive enhanced vetting, would require the use of biometrics and credential authentication technology at checkpoints to be absolutely sure that the people selected for this automated screening lane are who they say they are, Steve Karoly, acting assistant commissioner for Requirements and Capabilities Analysis at TSA, said at the American Association of Airport Executives annual aviation security summit in Arlington, Va.
The concept for segmenting screening lanes based on risk into three new categories is notional and is some ways off from possibly being implemented, Karoly said.
Credential authentication technology (CAT) is meant to use automation to verify the authenticity of travel documents such as passports and driver’s licenses. A biometric, such as facial recognition technology, would tie the individual to his or her travel document, Karoly said.
‘We want to be able to really understand who that passenger is, 100 percent verifiable,” Karoly said.
TSA doesn’t have biometric records for most travelers passing through standard security lanes today, but if a camera was put on the CAT system, it would allow a photo taken on the spot to be matched against the facial record stored on the travel document, he said.
TSA is developing pilot projects to shortly examine this technology, he said.
Karoly asked for help from stakeholders at the conference in getting to the point where an enhanced screening lane, such as Expedited Plus, can become a reality.
He later told Defense Daily that while the notional Expedited Plus screening lane appears to be touchless once a person’s identity has been verified, there could still be technology in the loop as the concept evolves. He also said that outside of the checkpoint other technologies and screening capabilities, such as video cameras and bomb-sniffing dogs, could help with traveler segmentation.
Karoly presented a single slide with the notional segmented screening concept, which suggests there would also be Expedited screening lanes that use next-generation scanning technology to help guard against potential threats carried by travelers while also permitting them a convenient process at the checkpoint. These lanes would be for vetted travelers much like those that participate in the current PreCheck trusted traveler program, he said.
The Expedited screening would be different from the PreCheck system, Karoly said. For example, depending on the development of technology, travelers qualifying for the Expedited lane might be able to walk through the lane without stopping while at the same time they are being imaged for potential threats, he said.
A third type of screening lane would be for travelers that TSA knows less about. These Standard lanes, according to the concept outlined on the slide, could include new parcel scanners based on computed tomography (CT), and or Advanced Technology (AT) X-ray systems, which are currently used for screening carry-on bags. Karoly said the CT and AT systems in this concept would be matrixed, which means that operators would be located remotely to review images of bags. Remote screening is expected to reduce manpower needs to help making screening more efficient.
The notional concept for Standard lanes includes improved Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), which are the body scanners currently used at checkpoints.
TSA currently only uses AIT systems supplied by L3 Technologies [LLL], but the agency recently certified a body scanner made by Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz, which Karoly said will be evaluated at an airport beginning early in 2018 as part of the agency’s Innovation Task Force.