Having international security standards in the mass transit community will enhance cooperation, improve interoperability and situational awareness and facilitate public-private partnerships that will help in crisis management and overall security, says a new report by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
The report was the result of a workshop last fall hosted by ANSI that brought together various government, industry and transit agency stakeholders to address international standards and conformity assessment programs, as well as identify standards and gaps for public transit security. The workshop followed an initial meeting last spring that was also hosted by ANSI to take a first look at understanding the status of security standards in the mass transit community (TR2, June 27, 2007).
The new report, Final Report: Workshop on Transit Security Standardization, outlines the challenges, possible solutions and current standards issues within four main categories: physical security; command and control; sensor integration, which includes biometrics, intelligent video, explosives detection and others; and communications. [The report is available from ANSI on its web site, http://www.ansi.org.]
The report is a “great start” for the transit community because it “outlines the issues and challenges we face,” Paul MacMillan, acting chief of police for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), tells TR2. The report is a “good guideline” to identify standards that need to be worked on, he adds.
In the area of physical security, the report notes how new technology has to be “retrofitted” into older transit systems, that typically lack space, power and the cleanliness required for high-tech devices. Funding, sustained maintenance, controlling relatively open access are some of the other challenges mentioned.
Solutions to the physical security challenges include risk mitigation such as controlling access to areas that need the most control, reliance on equipment that is easy to use, maintain and has reasonable operating costs.
On the subject of standards for physical security, the report says there is a “lack of security and design standards” from the perspective of both operators and vendors. It also suggests a need to get the customer’s “voice” into the product development cycle and that “performance or effects-based standards should be the focus.”
In the area of sensor integration, challenges include the need to keep passengers moving, openness of transit systems, that deterrence is critical and a biological attack may go undetected for hours, or days, which means crisis management and response needs to be comprehensive and detailed.
Sensor solutions include video analytics, active millimeter wave technology combined with video tracking of people, fundamentals such as training and increased public awareness, informed random screening, risk management, and chemical detection technology.
However, the report notes, there’s a need for standards to build and integrate technologies, for explosives detection equipment such as nitrate versus peroxide-based detection systems, endorsing a digital video standard, the need to test technologies in conditions representative of the transit system environment, and to fill gaps in certain equipment categories for video analytics.
The report lists over a dozen groups that have either published standards, or are working on them, related to the transit security environment. One of those groups, the American Public Transportation Association, which is the only one looking at the “full spectrum” of security needs in the transit environment, will be finalizing a number of standards this spring in several focus areas, Greg Hull, APTA’s director of security, tells TR2. Those areas are infrastructure security, emergency management and security risk management, he says.
APTA follows ANSI’s suggested approach to standards, which is consensus-based, and includes participation from all stakeholders, Hull says. He says the ANSI workshop allowed APTA to stay in touch with its international partners, which is in line with its goal of “fostering worldwide partnerships as we develop standards for our industry.”
Hull says the workshop produced no surprises in terms of the various activities other standards groups are working on. It was a chance to get more “depth” on what these groups are doing, he says.
MBTA’s MacMillan says the ANSI report points to specific areas that need to be remedied, which is where more standards work will need to be focused. The challenge going forward is for everyone to keep working together in various forums to meet these needs, he says.