September-October 2022 - 17

COVER STORY
AUTHOR Joe Petrie
How to Increase Airport
Situational Awareness
Understand how you can improve operational awareness
in your facilities and increase security.
PROTECTING AN airport goes well beyond implementing
new infrastructure or hardening facilities.
One of the biggest factors in a
high quality security program means
situational awareness of what's taking
place across the terminal, airfield and
beyond to understand what's happening,
where and by whom; or simply
having a proactive knowledge of what
could take place.
Airport Business recently spoke
with ELERTS CEO Ed English and
Intelligence Analyst David Bruce about
what situational awareness really means
in airport operations and what airports
can do to ensure effective knowledge
of the workings of their facilities.
Airport Business: What does awareness
mean in an airport setting? How does an
airport gauge awareness?
DB: An airport is very much like a city
and many different types of behavior
can be observed there from day to day.
Every venue has its own baseline of
what's normal and what exists outside
that baseline. Awareness means being
alert to suspicious behaviors and
hazards. Traveling causes a great deal
of anxiety for many people so a lot of
times seeing people that are anxious
or running for a flight they are about
to miss doesn't necessarily stand out
in that environment. Awareness to me
means picking up the threats that are
less obvious to everyone - tape over
a door latch, or a car in the airport
garage with no license plates. Or in
one scenario that came in through
our reporting of a woman washing a
bucket of rocks in the bathroom.
An airport can gauge awareness by
the type of incidents that are being
reported. For example, how many
reports of insider threat activity do
they receive? Or reports of unauthorized
people entering secured areas, or
human trafficking? We know these
things are happening, but if there is
little or no reporting on these types
of events, the airport is likely missing
a lot of information/intelligence that
they should be capturing.
Awareness can also be gauged by
how long it takes for a broken escalator
to get reported. We see how dangerous
these incidents can be - a good indicator
can be gained by rolling back the
camera footage and seeing how long
it took for that reporting to make its
way to a control center. If a passenger's
only option is to call 9-1-1, they will
probably not report unsafe conditions
until an actual emergency happens.
AB: Explain the benefits of enhanced
awareness for an airport when it comes
to security?
DB: Awareness is everything and timely
awareness is the gold standard. Like
cities, airports have the capabilities
to respond to just about any incident,
but capability and performance are two
different things. Many airports have
groups that specialize in terrorism,
smuggling and human trafficking.
They also have fire and emergency
medical assets embedded.
But in a case of suspicious
activity, unless
someone reports it,
these assets remain
unaware. That's why
crowdsourcing is such
a
force-multipl ier.
Having a steady stream
of actionable intelligence
from travelers and
employees is crucial.
ELERTS Intelligence
Analyst David Bruce
AB: How do you see technology reshaping
how airports can monitor situational
awareness?
DB: I mentioned earlier, crowdsourced
information is crucial. To gather it
with success, we must meet passengers
and employees where they
already are: their mobile phones. I
see airports turning to technology
that complements the systems already
in place. The technology exists in
mobile phones to geolocate, transmit
media and activate cameras in areas
of reporting. That is the future of
situational awareness in transportation
and it's already a proven asset in many
transportation venues. When we leverage
information from passengers and
employees, we create an environment
where we move from reactive to
proactive. Proven technology implemented
correctly and used to its fullest
potential makes everyone safer.
AB: What types of datapoints can crowdsourcing
information from employees
provide that enhance other programs
and technologies used to monitor
airport facilities?
EE: When a crowdsourced report is
sent for some type of activity that
needs a response or attention, it's
important to get eyes on that location
immediately. Many organizations have
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 17
http://www.AVIATIONPROS.COM
September-October 2022

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