TSA TO MAKE U.S. AIRPORT SECURITY ENHANCEMENTS
May 4, 2015
On April 20, 2015 DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson ordered the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to immediately implement certain recommendations made by the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC) to address the insider threat posed by aviation employees at U.S. airports. The ASAC made these recommendations in a recently issued report on TSA’s policies, procedures and resource allocations, prepared in response to a December 2014 incident whereby an FAA employee used his employment status to access a secure area at Atlanta International Airport and then flew to New York with a gun in his carry-on luggage.
In an effort to increase screening of airport and airline workers, the Secretary directed TSA to take the following immediate actions:
- Until TSA establishes a system for “real time recurrent” criminal history background checks for all aviation workers, require fingerprint-based Criminal History Records Checks every two years for all airport employee SIDA badge holders.
- Require airport and airline employees traveling as passengers to be screened by TSA prior to travel.
- Require airports to reduce the number of access points to secured areas to an operational minimum.
- Increase aviation employee screening, to include additional randomization screening throughout the workday.
- Re-emphasize and leverage the Department of Homeland Security “If You See Something, Say Something™” initiative to improve situational awareness and encourage detection and reporting of threat activity.
TSA will continue to analyze the recommendations in the ASAC report and will identify additional measures for future implementation.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6665).