TWO YEARS LATER: Air
Security
Fliers to Be Rated for Risk Level
New System Will Scrutinize Each Passenger,
Assign Color Code
By Sara Kehaulani
Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 9, 2003; Page
A01
In the most aggressive -- and, some say, invasive -- step
yet to protect air travelers, the federal government and the
airlines will phase in a computer system next year to measure the
risk posed by every passenger on every flight in the United
States.
The new Transportation Security Administration system seeks
to probe deeper into each passenger's identity than is currently
possible, comparing personal information against criminal records
and intelligence information. Passengers will be assigned a color
code -- green, yellow or red -- based in part on their city of
departure, destination, traveling companions and date of ticket
purchase.
Most people will be coded green and sail through. But up to
8 percent of passengers who board the nation's 26,000 daily flights
will be coded "yellow" and will undergo additional screening at the
checkpoint, according to people familiar with the program. An
estimated 1 to 2 percent will be labeled "red" and will be
prohibited from boarding. These passengers also will face police
questioning and may be arrested.
The system "will provide protections for the flying
public," said TSA spokesman Brian Turmail. "Not only should we keep
passengers from sitting next to a terrorist, we should keep them
from sitting next to wanted ax murderers."
The new system, called Computer Assisted Passenger
Pre-screening System II (CAPPS II), has sparked so much controversy
among both liberal and conservative groups that the TSA has
struggled to get it going. Delta Air Lines backed out of a testing
program with the agency earlier this year, and now the TSA will not
reveal which airlines will participate when it tests a prototype
early next year. If all goes as planned, the TSA will begin the new
computer screening of some passengers as early as next summer and
eventually it will be used for all domestic travelers.
"This system is going to be
replete with errors," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the
American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program.
"You could be falsely arrested. You could be delayed. You could lose
your ability to travel."
In the two years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
hijackings, air security has taken a high priority, and the
government has spent $9 billion on improvements. Thousands of
explosives-detection machines now scan checked luggage at airports
across the nation. A new force of federal airport screeners staffs
checkpoints, though next year some airports may revert to private
screeners. Cockpit doors have been reinforced, and hundreds of
airline pilots now carry guns. In addition, the force of undercover
air marshals has been expanded, and as many as 5,000 federal
immigration and customs agents will be trained to bolster the force
on a temporary basis when the government perceives a heightened
threat.
Still, many holes in security persist. Airports and
aircraft still appear easy to penetrate, illustrated last month by
an accidental landing of several boaters on the airfield at John F.
Kennedy International Airport. Air cargo remains vulnerable, as
virtually none of the items stowed alongside luggage in the aircraft
hold are screened for explosives. Government officials continue to
assess how best to respond to the possibility of a shoulder-fired
missile attack at a commercial airliner, which they maintain is a
serious threat.
In the coming months, major
airports in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver and Dallas will embark on
extensive construction projects to build explosives-detection
machines into conveyor-belt systems that sort checked luggage being
loaded onto planes. (Other airports, including Washington's, are
waiting in line for hundreds of millions of dollars in government
funding.)
Clearly, the TSA says, the job of protecting the nation's
skies is not done.
"Given the dynamic nature of the threat we deal with, it
would be impossible to predict when the work would be finished" on
air security, said TSA spokesman Robert Johnson. "We don't think it
will ever end."
The government says the most significant change in security
is still to come in the form of CAPPS II. The current computer
screener program was developed by U.S. airlines in the mid-1990s in
response to government and public pressure to improve air security
after terrorists blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland.
The existing system identifies certain passengers as risky
based on a set of assumptions about how terrorists travel. For
instance, passengers are flagged for additional screening if they
bought a one-way airline ticket, or if they paid with cash instead
of a credit card. Passengers who present a threat under these and
other criteria are issued boarding passes that bear a coding of
"SSS" or "***."
But the TSA, recognizing that the system is outdated and
easy to fool, wants to replace it and put the government in the role
now played by the airlines in making security assessments.
Under the new program, the airline will send information
about everyone who books a flight to the TSA, including full name,
home address, home telephone number, date of birth and travel
itinerary. If the computer system identifies a threat, the TSA will
notify federal or local law enforcement authorities. The agency has
not indicated the number or type of personnel needed to oversee the
program.
The TSA will check each passenger in two steps. The first
will match the passenger's name and information against databases of
private companies that collect information on people for commercial
reasons, such as their shopping habits. This process will generate a
numerical score that will indicate the likelihood that the passenger
is who he says he is. Passengers will not be informed of their color
code or their numerical score. The second step matches passenger
information against government intelligence combined with local and
state outstanding warrants for violent felonies.
Airlines like the system because they think it will reduce
time passengers spend at security checkpoints and lower the
likelihood that they will be delayed for their flights. The TSA said
the program is expected to flag fewer people than the current
computer screening system. The agency intends to test the program in
several phases to ensure that it works as promised.
"If it delivers the way it's envisioned, it's going to be a
significant, positive change," the TSA's Johnson said. "It's going
to be a lot fewer people [flagged], but we think it will be the
right people."
David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative
Union, worries that the computer screening program will go beyond
its original goals. "This system is not designed just to get
potential terrorists," Keene said. "It's a law enforcement tool. The
wider the net you cast, the more people you bring in."
As the government takes a new, large role in one aspect of
screening, it is rolling back its presence in another. By late 2004,
some airports are expected to replace the federal screening force
with private screeners. A security law passed after the terrorist
attacks allows airports to "opt out" of the government's federal
screening workforce in November 2004. Many airports, frustrated with
the staffing cuts and the inability to control the number of
screeners at each station, believe they might have more control over
the operations if a private company were in charge.
"I've been in various meetings with many airport managers
who are saying, 'We don't want as much government control around,' "
said James McNeil, chief executive of McNeil Technologies Inc.,
which provides security screeners at the airport in Rochester, N.Y.,
one of five test airports that employ private screeners. McNeil said
he has talked to 20 to 30 airports that are interested in his
services. A large association of the nation's airports estimates
that many small airports will opt out of government screeners next
year because their limited flight schedules require that screeners
work flexible hours. The government will still have a role in
security because the private screening companies will operate under
contracts managed by the TSA.
If many airports, particularly large hubs that handle a
major portion of the nation's 30,000 daily flights, choose to revert
to the private screening force, some aviation industry leaders have
wondered what that will mean for the TSA.
The agency, created just months after the terrorist
attacks, has already seen some of its authority stripped. The
Federal Air Marshal Service has moved to a law enforcement division
within the Department of Homeland Security, as has the agency's
explosives unit. Some of its security directors claim they are still
out of the loop on some of the agency's latest intelligence on air
security.
Johnson, the TSA spokesman, hinted that the agency's future
is unclear.
"We've got a department-level organization now created for
that sole purpose [of fighting terrorism] and it only makes sense,
where necessary, to economize and coordinate," Johnson said. "There
will always be a need to provide the best aviation security possible
at airports. Whether it's under one flag or another, it really makes
no difference."
© 2003 The Washington Post
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