Counter Terror Gazette

Integrated Security Screening Solutions: joining the dots

22 Dec 2010

Since the destruction of Pan Am 103, aside from the latest cargo bomb plot, virtually every terrorist attack has been executed via the passenger-screening checkpoint. It seems that the knee-jerk reaction to plug the latest exposed gap is to add another new technology or process to the existing mix of systems. We remove our shoes, dig out our laptops and decant liquids into tiny bottles. “New” systems are pushed into the field, creating confusion for passengers and operators alike. What never seems to be addressed is the fact that the underlying security strategy needs an upgrade. Steve Wolff assesses how the screening process can be enhanced through the analysis of data and the integration of technologies and processes. 

The number of terrorists who, since 1994, have succeeded in smuggling items through the checkpoint has proved that a fundamental overhaul of the screening process is now due. The facts are that Ramsay Youssef, Richard Reid, the Chechen “Black Widows” and, most recently, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, all beat the checkpoint process. While we’ve forced them to use (for now at least) more dangerous homemade explosives and less reliable components, these have greater detection challenges especially when combined with cleverly concealed Improvied Explosive Device (IED) components. And that is before they turn to concealment methods that drug smugglers routinely use today.  

The checkpoint screening process is much more challenging than hold baggage, yet technologies which are considered unsuitable for hold baggage screening are being embraced at the world’s checkpoint lanes. Checkpoints have to contend with disassembled bomb components as well as conventional weapons, none of which have to be carried onboard by the same individual. The threat from knives and other non-projectile weapons has been dramatically reduced thanks to improved cockpit protection and air marshals, not to mention passengers, yet we still ban pocketknives. MORE ONLINE