Centerlines - September 2008 - (Page 51) SECURIT Y Checkpoint evolution at BWI. says”—and a shell, flip flops, a helmet, glasses, keys, a musical instrument, outlines of a piece of luggage and its contents, among other things. Also separating the security area are back-lit light boxes used as screening, some with instructions, featuring changing shades of purple and blue, colors considered to be cool and calming. There are also some ambient noises intended to calm, such as shore birds and a humming sound. But the sounds, at least on one busy afternoon, seem to be mostly drowned out by the normal, sometimes loud sounds of an airport—people’s chatter, public announcements, bags on rollers and airplanes roaring above on takeoff. wider, pale blue belts. Interspersed throughout them are boxed photographs of TSA security officers—on one side, telling passengers their names and where they come from and on the flip side, some facts about their personal lives. Teresa, for instance, is a TSA officer from Baltimore; on the other side, you learn she also is a home improvement guru. The pictures are intended to personalize the TSA employees who are working at the checkpoint. TSA officers also sport new uniforms featuring a muted royal blue shirt, replacing white, and new TSA badges that pin on, instead of the previously sewn-in badges, connoting professionalism. Calmer Means More Secure Containing passengers in the checkpoint area is designed to make them more easily observed by Behavior Detection Officers, making sure those with hostile intent do not enter the secured area of the airport. “If you calm down the process so it’s less noisy and confused, those who would do harm will be more obvious,” an official says. Within the checkpoint area, there are new crowd-control stantions with The Checking Process As passengers approach the Travel Document Checkers, a function TSA took over from airlines last year, there is a “prep stop” where passengers can trash items they can’t take through, take bags for their small bottles, or put aluminum, glass, paper or plastic items into a recycling bin. Passengers can sit on twoperson benches to get things ready if they want. Once documents are checked, passengers go through and approach the new automated bin return system. Travelers don’t have to grab a bin from a stack or wait for one, but simply remove a bin from automatic rollers under the ledge, put it on the top side and place personal items in it. It then moves automatically along the rollers through the bag security system. The automated system has two tracks, separated by a short Plexiglas wall. If a security officer wants a secondary look taken, the bag can be put on the parallel track so it doesn’t have to return to the front of the line. The bag is then opened in front of the passenger at the secondary screening point. The new Advanced Technology Xray machines show multiple images of bags, a cross section and a top view, providing clear, high-definition images that improve TSA’s ability to detect potential threat items. This helps reduce the number of bag checks, thus speeding the system. TSA expects to be able to use software upgrades to enhance the equipment as new threats emerge and new detection technology becomes available. As baggage and personal items are proceeding, the passenger goes through the metal detector and may be randomly selected to use the new Whole Body Imager. TSA emphasizes that its use is voluntary so a person selected may decline, opting to go into a glass-enclosed area for a pat-down and wand-search. In the glass-enclosed imaging machine, the passenger is instructed where to stand with arms raised. Privacy issues have been raised by the American Civil Liberties Union and others because of the complete nature of the body image revealed on the screen to TSA officers. The agency counters that a passenger has the option not to use the bodyimaging equipment and notes that the traveler’s face is blurred—a builtin privacy feature—on the screen. The officer looking at the image also www.aci-na.org | CENTERLINES 51 http://www.aci-na.org
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.