Securing our nation’s mass transit systems seems like a nearly impossible task and there’s certainly no silver bullet for protecting the traveling public. A new report issued by the Government Accountability Office in July found that there are a number of promising explosives detection technologies out there, but also noted there are serious limitations that need to be addressed for proper deployment in a rail environment.
The report found that handheld, desktop, and kit-based trace detection systems, x-ray imaging systems, as well as the use of canines, are all technologies that have demonstrated good detection capabilities, but did not recommend any of these technologies specifically.
One of the concerns in securing ground transportation is passenger flow. It’s fairly understood that passengers on New York’s subway system, for example, are not going to tolerate major interruptions of their commute. Therefore, the government needs to find technologies that can detect explosives, but do not impede on passenger flow. For this, the GAO recommends the development of a concept of operations that “would help balance security with the need to maintain the efficient and free flowing movement of people. A concept of operations could include a response plan for how rail employees should react to an alarm when a particular technology detects an explosive.”
The GAO also reported that in implementing these technologies and policies there are possibly too many organizations involved in this effort:
While there is a shared responsibility for securing the passenger rail environment, the federal government, including TSA, and passenger rail operators have differing roles, which could complicate decisions to fund and implement explosives detection technologies. For example, TSA provides guidance and some funding for passenger rail security, but rail operators themselves provide day-to-day-security of their systems.
TSA seems to be taking a bigger role in securing surface transportation. Secretary Napolitano recently announced the agency (and its new head) will focus more of its efforts on securing mass transit. It recently launched a national “See Something, Say Something” campaign, but no specifics on the technology side.
Oh, to be a college student again and have the time to come up with ridiculous projects. These Brigham Young University students took it to the next level when they designed a motorized couch to drive around campus. Check it out:
Despite their obvious ingenuity, campus security officials were not impressed and banned all motorized couches from campus. Yep, I’d like to see that written in the rules and regulations of the school myself. But despite it being banned from campus, apparently these two like to take it out cruising around the city and through the Wendy’s drive-thru, although I’m sure the local police aren’t too psyched about that either.
However, I can’t help but feel like they’re missing a critical part of this scheme. Perhaps investing in a motorized cooler could make their experience complete:
That’s kind of awesome, right? Hard to believe it goes 13 mph, has enough storage for a case of beer, a good size bag of ice, and rocks a drink holder. I’m sure these guys could find a buddy willing to ride this over to stadium to tailgate in style.
Securing stadiums is certainly not a simple task and it’s a topic we’ve covered fairly extensively here at SDN. One of my favorites was a tour of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, in case you missed it (there’s even a cool video to go with it).
In addition, I also wrote a story recently about the University of Minnesota’s effort to streamline and secure its new Golden Gophers’ TCF Bank Stadium. Many stadiums are turning to fans to enhance security as well. As a matter of fact, the NFL has been strongly encouraging its 32 teams to set up a system allowing fans to directly text the security department when issues arise in the stands.
Now, the Baltimore Ravens are having to step up security at its practice fields, according to this article in USA Today.
Apparently they’ve been having issues with large crowds vying to get autographs and have been forced to set up parameters. Now, players will only sign autographs for kids at football camp who are 6-15, are wearing a team-issued wristband, and are in a cordoned-off autograph zone.
“We have considered changing the way we do autograph signings for a few years,” team president Dick Cass said when the announcement was made. “Our crowds for the morning practices have become so large that we’ve had safety situations with people pushing each other to try and get closer to the players. Often times, children would be put in difficult positions with the rush for autographs, especially from our most popular players.”
That policy certainly makes sense from a security standpoint, but personally, if those kids are there for football camp, aren’t they use to getting pushed around a bit? I think instead of setting up all these rules they just make getting an autograph some sort of tackling drill. I say, suit the kids up in their equipment, let them loose and make them work to get those autographs. I’m sure it’ll make them tougher in the long run.
I had to laugh when I read this blog post from the Washington Post today. Apparently, the Transportation Security Administration is getting creative in its recruiting efforts and has started advertising jobs on … get this … pizza boxes.
Yep, no kidding.
A TSA spokesperson wouldn’t specify which pizza places deliver the boxes and in case you can’t read it, it says:
“Washington Reagan National Airport and Washington-Dulles International Airport are now hiring Transportation Security Officers,” the ad said. “See yourself in a vital role for Homeland Security. Be part of a dynamic security team protecting airports and skies as you proudly secure your future.”
According to the Post blog, the boxed ad campaign was developed last year in an effort to reach a broader applicant pool. However, my instincts tell me that this marketing campaign doesn’t exactly target the TSA’s ideal candidate pool.
I also think this counters the TSA’s effort to professionalize its officers. Even Pistole mentioned in his confirmation hearing how important it is for the agency to professionalize TSOs and encourage them to view their employment with the TSA as a career opportunity rather than just a job. But, if nothing else, I must commend the TSA for getting a little creative with its recruiting efforts. After all, who among us doesn’t love a good pie?
The 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver was largely a success. Well, let’s say nearly a success, especially if you consider the uncooperative weather and the death of luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia. I guess what I should say, is that on the security front, the Olympics were successful.
A few weeks ago I wrote a follow-up story about the Olympic Games and discussed the city’s strategy to keep citizens and visitors safe. I spoke with Kevin Wallinger, the director of emergency management for the City of Vancouver, who was involved extensively in the planning and preparation for the Olympics.
He told me that one of the biggest challenges was developing the communication channels for various agencies. To support that effort the city renovated its emergency operations center (which is co-located with its 9/11 center) to better monitor the Games. All of this obviously costs money. And a lot of money. The EOC itself was a $1.5 million project. The city also deployed a temporary 100-camera video surveillance system that required a fairly extensive network be put in place (fiber ain’t cheap folks and neither is wireless).
Overall, Vancouver officials said the cost of security was around the $900 million (Canadian) mark. That’s no small sum, obviously. And that final price tag was five times what Canada estimated when it bid for the Games, according to this Reuters article. That’s a huge difference and I’m guessing Canadians aren’t so thrilled about it, especially now that they realize they’ll actually have to pay for it.
“We did go over because of the added security costs by an additional amount that took us up to the $765-million total,” he added. “We have always been clear that there are other things that we would do to leverage the Games.”
But, in my humble opinion, Vancouver is not taking measures to leverage some of those security components. For example, those 100 cameras that the city installed in its entertainment district, well, those cameras are sitting in a warehouse now, totally unused.
Although, to be fair, the city has made some effort to make back some of that investment. As reported by SSN, the city is selling off some of the equipment in an auction. Recently, it opened up the sale of a 1,000-plus camera system to be sold piece-by-piece because it couldn’t find buyers to take the entire load. But, is that really getting the most out of its investment? Obviously not. It seems to me the city would be better served by actually using some of this technology. I bet most cities and municipalities would die to have access to this kind of equipment and the infrastructure to boot. But, because Canada has so many restrictions on privacy (they even have a “Privacy Commissioner”), they’re unable to maintain those systems in the city.
So, I don’t buy it Mr. Finance Minister. Don’t blame security for your sticker shock.
Remember CFATS? I know, it’s been a while for me, too, but today Secretary Napolitano delivered remarks at the 2010 Chemical Sector Security Summit about DHS’s progress towards bolstering security at high-risk chemical facilities through the CFATS program.
Although I only could find this DHS press release and not the full transcript, Napolitano discussed the importance of maintaining “common-sense performance standards to help protect individual facilities against threats without compromising their unique operational characteristics or efficiency.”
The common-sense component to this legislation certainly has been a concern. Nobody wants to be told (or forced) to put in security measures that may not be applicable to that facility. I think Napolitano’s speech reflects her understanding that there is no blanket solution to securing these critical facilities.
But, the question remains whether the CFATS bill will even make it to a full vote in the Senate. As we reported in March, the CFATS bill received little support during a U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
Back then, I spoke with Patrick Coyle, a former chemical facility employee and author of Chemical Facility Security News blog, who told me he thought the bill was “dead”:
“I would be very surprised if this bill makes it to a final vote on the Senate floor before the summer recess,” Coyle said. “And if it does not reach the Senate floor by the first of August it will not have any chance of passage before the October election – it’s too controversial of a bill with not enough force behind it and powerful people pushing for it.”
I hate to think about it myself, but August is right around the corner, folks.
However, I do want to point out that Coyle said the industry has been fairly receptive about the way DHS is approaching this program. So far, the department has been working hard to involve the industry in developing and streamlining the evaluation process. But, it still remains to be seen if this re-authorization legislation has a chance in the Senate. If it doesn’t and something happens in the meantime, Coyle said it will be bad, bad, bad news for everyone:
The biggest fear in the failure of this bill is that bureaucracy may have held up securing some of the country’s most critical infrastructure. “I’m scared to death that they’ll be someone like the guy who flew into the IRS building in Austin who will show up outside a chemical facility with a bomb,” Coyle said. “The world is going to come down real hard on DHS and Congress for not having done anything and if that happens all bets are off – that’s what scares me because any legislation coming from that is going to Dranconian.”
On the day that John Pistole gets sworn in as the head of the Transportation Security Administration, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that the agency may have considerable difficulties meeting the August 2010 deadline for 100 percent cargo screening.
The report cites that shipper participation in the voluntary screening program has been lower than targeted by the TSA, which means (I’m assuming) that the TSA is having to screen the majority of cargo, rather than having it pre-screened at Certified Cargo Screening Facilities.
These difficulties are likely due to the fact that the TSA can’t seem to figuring out what kind of technology it should use to screen cargo:
“There is no technology approved by TSA to screen large pallets or containers of cargo, which suggests the need for alternative approaches to screening such cargo,” read the report.
The report also found that TSA has not completed a staffing study to determine the number of inspectors it needs to oversee this screening program. This is going to be yet one more review that Pistole will have to order, along with an evaluation of technology usage, TSO training procedures, and intelligence-gathering strategies.
Overall, the report determined that the TSA will be unable to meet the August 2010 deadline and does not have a contingency plan about what it will do if it can’t meet the mandate:
Several of these challenges suggest the need for a contingency plan, in case the agency’s current initiatives are not successful in meeting the mandate without impeding the flow of commerce. However, TSA has not developed such a plan. Addressing these issues could better position TSA to meet the mandate.
Good luck in your new position, Pistole. You’re going to need it.
Tomorrow John Pistole will be sworn in by Secretary Napolitano as the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. The swearing in will take place at Penn Station in New York City during a rail security event. I consider this a rather symbolic gesture of the TSA’s effort to shift some of the attention to protecting mass transit systems and not just aviation.
Napolitano herself will be traveling to New York from Washington, D.C. aboard an Amtrak passenger rail train for the inauguration of a national “See Something, Say Something” campaign, reported HSToday.com. I thought the “See Something, Say Something” campaign was already a national effort, but apparently that was exclusive to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City (see, you learn something every day).
During his confirmation hearing, Pistole discussed the need to complete a threat analysis of U.S. rail systems in order to determine how TSA can better protect our national transit system. While I think we cannot ease up on our efforts to protect aviation, the threat against our rail and bus systems is very real and even more difficult to protect.
I think the strategy of trying to involve the public in protecting these systems is absolutely critical. Realistically, the TSA will never be able to screen every passenger aboard the nation’s rail and bus systems, so the agency must really rely on the alertness of the traveling public to pick up on events that are out of the ordinary. We can’t forget we’re all in this together.
Despite all the school shootings and all the focus on improving security at our nation’s colleges and universities, apparently there are still some schools who are frighteningly unprepared for a campus incident.
I was rather stunned after reading this Washington Post article regarding a shooting at Northern Virginia Community College last fall.
A student walked into a classroom with a .30-06 rifle in December and fired two shots at his instructor. Fortunately, he missed and just sat down and waited for police to arrive. No one was injured in this incident.
After the shooting, the school issued a review of the incident. Obviously, it’s difficult for school authorities to prevent this type of incident from happening, but the review found the response to the incident was, quite frankly, embarrassing to the school as well as to the educational security community:
Campus police responding to an active shooter on the campus in Woodbridge last fall did not have floor plans or master keys to enter rooms or buildings, and 36 of the 45 security cameras on campus were not working, according to internal reports the college has release
I can’t understand how the police didn’t have keys to the building. That just seems ridiculous. And, not having properly functioning video cameras? I can understand one or two not working, but only having nine out of 45 functioning? This is basic stuff, people.
Apparently, the school was in the process of installing a mass notification system, but it wouldn’t have mattered if they had had one or not because the report found that “officers were too busy to activate emergency alerts to the campus community. It also noted that ‘the campus was not prepared to immediately issue emergency alerts’ and that the ‘limited access and functionality’ of the security cameras ‘made situational awareness difficult.’”
Not enough time to issue a notification? Well, that could be because there doesn’t appear to be a proper security administration structure in place. One of the report’s recommendations was that the school should consolidate security responsibilities (hence, the security director title we know and love here at SDN).
The commission report notes that business managers on each of the college’s six campuses are also the designated emergency response coordinators, and suggested that they have limited time to focus on security and probably have insufficient training. “The college needs to clarify organizational responsibilities,” the report concluded.
But, despite all the rather damning findings from the report, administrators are apparently defending their response:
John Dever, the college’s executive vice president for academic and student services, chaired the commission. He said the college took many security steps after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, “and all of that was severely tested on Dec. 8. In many ways, we came through well,” particularly in communication with Prince William police. He said the commission recommended strengthening mental health treatment and coordination among campus emergency responders.
I know it’s not Friday Funday yet (that’s when I usually allow myself to post offbeat, sometimes humorous blog posts because it’s Friday and they let me wear jeans to work so that means I can be “casually professional” all around), but I just saw this press release and wanted to share.
As many of you know, there has been a significant push by the Department of Homeland Security to educate the public about how they can contribute to national security. In one of her early speeches, Secretary Napolitano said:
“For too long, we’ve treated the public as a liability to be protected rather than as an asset in our nation’s collective security. This approach, unfortunately, has allowed confusion, anxiety and fear to linger.”
The way people react to emergencies is critical and the government has been making efforts to ensure people know what to do. Some states are doing their part to keep the public informed during emergencies, too. Remember this SDN story about New Jersey implementing NJ Alert, a mass text and email emergency notification system that’s open to the public?
Well, now DHS and FEMA are trying to appeal to the tech-savvy nature of our nation’s children in an effort to get them to prepare for disaster. And it comes in the form of, you guessed it, a video game.
Introducing: Disaster Hero!
According to this press release, the game is only in the design phase, but there’s a slide show at the bottom if you’re interested in seeing some screenshots.
The web-based game will be targeted to multiple audiences, including children, early teens, parents, caregivers and teachers, and will focus on what to do before, during and after a disaster. The game and associated website will emphasize getting an emergency kit, having an emergency plan and being informed.
Fun. I figure, if they can get kids to exercise while playing video games (called exergaming, for those of you not in the know), then why not use this same medium to make sure they’re ready to deal with disaster? Way to be on your game, DHS.
