The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) hopes in the near future to allow passengers at airport security checkpoints to leave liquids in their carry-on bags due to advances in technology, John Halinski, the agency’s deputy administrator, said last month.
“I would like to, in the near future, be able to have people keep liquids in the bag,” Halinski said at the annual American Association of Airport Executives Aviation (AAAE) Security Summit. “That’s where we want to get to. That’s where my technology people are driving. That’s what we’re working with, with the Europeans.”
Halinski declined to set a timeline for when TSA might lift the requirement for passengers to remove their 3-1-1 compliant liquids from their bags so that they can be scanned separately by X-ray systems during checkpoint screening.
By Jan. 31, 2014, airports in the European Union will begin a partial lift of the liquids restrictions by allowing duty-free liquids purchased in non-European airports to be carried in security tamper evident bags (STEB) with the goal of a complete lifting of the restrictions by January 2016. There will be equipment in European airports to screen the liquids contained in the STEBs for explosives.
Halinski said that allowing travelers to leave liquids in their carry-on bags would improve the passenger experience and still maintain security. By volume, water is the liquid that passengers most often try to bring through the checkpoint, he said.
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| Smiths Detection’s HI-SCAN 6040 AT X-Ray System features automated explosives detection capabilities. Photo: Smiths Detection |
Dating back to around 2007 and 2008, TSA has hoped to make the checkpoint experience more convenient on passengers vis-à-vis liquids. Kip Hawley, who was the agency’s administrator in the last years of the Bush Administration, had held out the expectation that the Advanced Technology (AT) X-ray machines that TSA began purchasing in 2007 would allow it to begin doing automated screening of carry-on bags.
However, industry was never able to satisfactorily meet the agency’s demands for automated screening of liquids for explosives. Now, TSA is holding out hope again that it can take more advantage of the inherent capabilities of the AT machines.
TSA is working with industry and “we think we can crack that nut” soon on liquids, Halinski said.
TSA has purchased most of its AT X-ray systems from OSI Systems [OSIS] Rapiscan Systems division, the Smiths Detection division of Britain’s Smiths Group, and to a lesser degree from L-3 Communications [LLL].
In other comments, Halinski said that TSA’s risk-based security efforts are the “way of the future.” The agency believes that 99 percent of the traveling public poses no terrorism threat, he said.
TSA’s near-term goal is to channel 25 percent of air travelers through its PreCheck expedited screening lanes at airport security checkpoints by the end of this year, although the agency already hit the mark at least once in late October and expects to hit it consistently beginning with Thanksgiving.
By the end of 2014, the goal is to have 50 percent of passengers going through PreCheck lanes. Part of the plan for 2014 is to begin adding international airlines, taking advantage existing relationships these carriers have with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to allow their customers the opportunity to obtain trusted traveler benefits, Ken Fletcher, the deputy assistant administrator for Risk Based Security, said at the AAAE event.
If TSA can get the majority of air passengers through PreCheck lanes, this will decrease demand for resources, said John Sammon, the agency’s assistant administrator for Security Policy and Industry Engagement. He said that PreCheck lanes have two times the productivity as other screening lanes at airport checkpoints.
TSA’s emphasis on risk-based security is beginning to extend to how it applies technology to screening. John Sanders, the agency’s assistant administrator for Security Capabilities, said TSA is trying to take a systems approach to its solutions.
Sanders said that if more travelers are going through risk-based screening at the checkpoint, it makes sense to begin applying risk-based initiatives to checked baggage screening.
“Why are we screening all of the checked bags in a one-size fits all approach,” Sanders asked. “So an initiative for me is working with manufacturers in changing the way we do detection standards as we move forward.”
Fletcher said applying variable screening to checked bags is a technical challenge but “we are looking for a solution.” If solutions exist, the next question is what impacts are there to airport operations, he said.
“We see risk-based security becoming pervasive across all of our front line operations,” Fletcher said.
Sanders also said that based on intelligence TSA is examining the “trade space” at the checkpoint in terms of the AT X-ray technology, including passenger experience, operational efficiency and security effectiveness. He plans to discuss with vendors in the coming months about the false alarm rates he wants, passenger throughput, and what are the probabilities of detection for different categories of explosives.
“There will be changes to our standards going forward” and the agency will use “the street to allow us to get some of those innovations out there” more quickly, Sanders said. He told Defense Daily that the agency would like to do “dynamic sensing” at the checkpoint and with checked bags based on intelligence about each traveler.