When the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) introduces trusted traveler lanes next month at several airports as part of a new pilot project to examine intelligence-driven passenger screening, the benefits will include separate lanes at the checkpoint for these travelers and additional conveniences, TSA Administrator John Pistole said yesterday.
The additional conveniences include the vetted passengers not having to take off their shoes or remove their laptop computers from their carrying case as they pass through the trusted traveler lanes at the airport checkpoint, Pistole said at an aviation security event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In previous discussions about the new trusted traveler program TSA hadn’t disclosed the screening benefits that select travelers would get. Earlier this year Pistole said he would move forward on a risk-based screening program for passengers at airport checkpoints and in July TSA announced that pilot projects for the program would begin at four airports as early as this month (Defense Daily, July 15).
Pistole said yesterday that the pilot projects would now begin in October.
For now, the TSA known traveler program is open only to select groups, namely certain frequent fliers of Delta Air Lines [DAL] and American Airlines [AMR] as well as certain members of Customs and Border Protection’s trusted traveler programs that are United States citizens, who are eligible to volunteer for the program and then submit to background checks to be allowed to participate. Even if a person is admitted to the program, Pistole reminded his audience that trusted travelers could still be randomly selected to go through the regular screening lanes to prevent any would-be terrorist from gaming the system.
In addition to the emerging trusted traveler program, TSA and the Air Line Pilots Association and Air Transport Association are testing a program to expedite screening of airline pilots at airport checkpoints (Defense Daily, Aug. 16). The Known Crewmember program kicked-off last month and like the forthcoming known traveler program, represents a move by TSA under Pistole toward more risk-based approaches to aviation security.
Risk-based screening will allow TSA to focus more attention on travelers the agency knows less about or knows a lot about because they are on a terrorist watch list, Pistole said. To do this requires more “intelligence screening on the front end,” he said.
Pistole said that there are other risk-based efforts that TSA is working on but he didn’t disclose these.
Pistole also said that TSA continues to be interested in checkpoint of the future concepts where passengers would essentially be able to move through screening area basically unhindered through the use of stand-off explosives detection systems. While he’s a “proponent” of this, the technology “is not there to do that,” Pistole said.
For now the risk-based initiatives are focused on domestic flights but TSA is in talks with foreign governments and private industry who are interested in how these programs work, Pistole said.
Pistole said that the end-state of passenger screening will continue to evolve but that going forward the “general approach” will be to do more intelligence screening on the front end to expedite the physical screening in as many opportunities as we can.”