Selective Screening of Rail Passengers, MTI 06-07

The threat of another major terrorist attack in the United States remains high, with the greatest danger coming from local extremists inspired by events in the Middle East. Although the United States removed the Taliban government and destroyed al Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan, events in Europe and elsewhere have shown that the terrorist network leadership remains determined to carry out further attacks and is capable of doing so. Therefore, the United States must systematically conduct research on terrorist strikes against transportation targets to distill lessons learned and determine the best practices for deterrence, response, and recovery. Those best practices must be taught to transportation and security professionals to provide secure surface transportation for the nation. Studying recent incidents in Europe and Asia, along with other research, will help leaders in the United States learn valuable lessons—from preventing attacks, to response and recovery, to addressing the psychological impacts of attacks to business continuity. Timely distillations of the lessons learned and best practices developed in other countries, once distributed to law enforcement, first responders, and rail- and subway-operating transit agencies, could result in the saving of American lives. This monograph focuses on the terrorist risks confronting public transportation in the United States—especially urban mass transit—and explores how different forms of passenger screening, and in particular, selective screening, can best be implemented to reduce those risks

The Challenge of Protecting Transit and Passenger Rail: Understanding How Security Works Against Terrorism

Terrorists see transit and passenger rail as an attractive target. Designed for public convenience, trains and stations offer terrorists easy access to crowds of people in confined environments where there are minimal security risks and attacks can cause high casualties. This report examines the unique attributes of the terrorist threat, how security measures against terrorism have evolved over the years, and their overall effectiveness. Does security work? Empirical evidence is hard to come by. Terrorist incidents are statistically rare and random, making it difficult to discern effects. The fact that terrorists focus most of their attacks on targets with little or no security suggests that security influences their choice of targets. Increased security does not reduce terrorism overall, but appears to push terrorists toward softer targets. These indirect effects are visible only over long periods of time. Public surface transportation poses unique challenges. It is not easy to increase security without causing inconvenience, unreasonably slowing travel times, adding significant costs, and creating vulnerable queues of people waiting to pass through security checkpoints. This has compelled rail operators to explore other options: enlisting passengers and staff in alerting authorities to suspicious objects or behavior, random passenger screening, designing new stations to facilitate surveillance and reduce potential casualties from explosions or fire, and ensuring rapid intervention

Supplement to MTI Study on Selective Passenger Screening in the Mass Transit Rail Environment, MTI Report 09-05

This supplement updates and adds to MTIs 2007 report on Selective Screening of Rail Passengers (Jenkins and Butterworth MTI 07-06: Selective Screening of Rail Passengers). The report reviews current screening programs implemented (or planned) by nine transit agencies, identifying best practices. The authors also discuss why three other transit agencies decided not to implement passenger screening at this time. The supplement reconfirms earlier conclusions that selective screening is a viable security option, but that effective screening must be based on clear policies and carefully managed to avoid perceptions of racial or ethnic profiling, and that screening must have public support. The supplement also addresses new developments, such as vapor-wake detection canines, continuing challenges, and areas of debate. Those interested should also read MTI S-09-01 Rail Passenger Selective Screening Summit

Enhancing aviation security awareness of vocational students from travel agent major of SMK Sriwijaya, Palembang

Playing a crucial role in ensuring an aviation operation's safety and security, an Aviation Security Officer (AVSEC) is equipped with particular knowledge and skills. These are regulated in an international standard and ministered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as an Indonesian administrator. To apply as an AVSEC, the compulsory administrative requirement is an AVSEC license issued by DGCA. Special training and competency tests are held by approved institutions at cost. Minimizing the cost while providing adequate training for its students, Sriwijaya Aviation Vocational School decided to participate in a community service program held by STTKD, School of Aerospace Technology. The program specifically complies with knowledge provision and skills practice around AVSEC duties. Materials are designed as close as possible to approved AVSEC training and tests to help participants with the provision to take the real test. Among all the material in an approved AVSEC training, this program delivers material about AVSEC duties and problems, situational awareness at the airport, and politeness in English imperative for AVSEC

Prevention of terrorism : an assessment of prior POM work and future potentials

© 2020 Production and Operations Management Society In this study, we review POM-based research related to prevention of terrorism. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) terrorist attacks have the potential to be prevented. Consequently, the focus of this study is on security enhancement and improving the resiliency of a nation to prevent terrorist attacks. Accordingly, we review articles from the 25 top journals, [following procedures developed by Gupta et al. (2016)], in the fields of Production and Operations Management, Operations Research, Management Science, and Supply Chain Management. In addition, we searched some selected journals in the fields of Information Sciences, Political Science, and Economics. This literature is organized and reviewed under the following seven core capabilities defined by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): (1) Intelligence and Information Sharing, (2) Planning, (3) Interdiction and Disruption, (4) Screening, Search, and Detection, (5) Forensics and Attribution, (6) Public Information and Warning, and (7) Operational Coordination. We found that POM research on terrorism is primarily driven by the type of information that a defending country and a terrorist have about each other. Game theory is the main technique that is used in most research papers. Possible directions for future research are discussed

Two-stage security screening strategies in the face of strategic applicants, congestions and screening errors

Abstract In a security screening system, a tighter screening policy not only increases the security level, but also causes congestion for normal people, which may deter their use and decrease the approver's payoff. Adapting to the screening policies, adversary and normal applicants choose whether to enter the screening system. Security managers could use screening policies to deter adversary applicants, but could also lose the benefits of admitting normal applicants when they are deterred, which generates a tradeoff. This paper analyzes the optimal screening policies in an imperfect two-stage screening system with potential screening errors at each stage, balancing security and congestion in the face of strategic normal and adversary applicants. We provide the optimal levels of screening strategies for the approver and the best-response application strategies for each type of applicant. This paper integrates game theory and queueing theory to study the optimal two-stage policies under discriminatory and non-discriminatory screening policies. We extend the basic model to the optimal allocation of total service rate to the assumed two types of applicants at the second stage and find that most of the total service rate are assigned to the service rate for the assumed "Bad" applicants. This paper provides some novel policy insights which may be useful for security screening practices

Enabling NATO’s Collective Defense: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency (NATO COE-DAT Handbook 1)

In 2014 NATO’s Center of Excellence-Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT) launched the inaugural course on “Critical Infrastructure Protection Against Terrorist Attacks.” As this course garnered increased attendance and interest, the core lecturer team felt the need to update the course in critical infrastructure (CI) taking into account the shift from an emphasis on “protection” of CI assets to “security and resiliency.” What was lacking in the fields of academe, emergency management, and the industry practitioner community was a handbook that leveraged the collective subject matter expertise of the core lecturer team, a handbook that could serve to educate government leaders, state and private-sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure, academicians, and policymakers in NATO and partner countries. Enabling NATO’s Collective Defense: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency is the culmination of such an effort, the first major collaborative research project under a Memorandum of Understanding between the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), and NATO COE-DAT. The research project began in October 2020 with a series of four workshops hosted by SSI. The draft chapters for the book were completed in late January 2022. Little did the research team envision the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February this year. The Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, successive missile attacks against Ukraine’s electric generation and distribution facilities, rail transport, and cyberattacks against almost every sector of the country’s critical infrastructure have been on world display. Russian use of its gas supplies as a means of economic warfare against Europe—designed to undermine NATO unity and support for Ukraine—is another timely example of why adversaries, nation-states, and terrorists alike target critical infrastructure. Hence, the need for public-private sector partnerships to secure that infrastructure and build the resiliency to sustain it when attacked. Ukraine also highlights the need for NATO allies to understand where vulnerabilities exist in host nation infrastructure that will undermine collective defense and give more urgency to redressing and mitigating those fissures.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1951/thumbnail.jp

Mass Transit: Where Security and Sustainability Meet

As it becomes apparent that increasing sustainability is a requirement to be a leading city in modern, globalized society, public and private actors are improving mass transit networks in cities around the world. At the same time, the threat of international terrorism is a security concern which must be addressed by modern cities, particularly those in Western countries like the United States and members of the European Union. This thesis looks at how mass transit, where sustainability and security converge, is dealing with these two realities of the twenty-first century, both of which have become significant issues only in recent decades. Brief histories of transit and terrorism are given prior to a more thorough analysis of security measures that have been taken by cities already, as well as some measures that could be taken in the future.Master of Art

Terrorism Overview, MTI Report 01-14

Recent global events make it clear that the threat of terrorism is one to be taken seriously. For those who are attempting to kill in quantity and kill indiscriminately, surface transportation offers the ideal target. Because of the public nature of mass transit, there is often little security with no checkpoints as is the case with airports. The practice of terrorism has moved in varying directions in recent years, depending upon different forms of transportation systems and venues of operation. On the positive side, terrorist attacks on commercial aviation have declined significantly after reaching a high point in the 1970s, bringing some relief to travelers, airlines and governments. No doubt, much of the change has been facilitated by the increased vigilance in airports and related facilities. No such relief has occurred for those who use surface transportation, however. In fact, assaults on public surface transportation systems have continued to take place worldwide without any indications of abatement. Why have there been such different behaviors and outcomes with these two methods of transportation? This study addresses these fundamental and increasingly important questions. This executive summary is a preview of the soon-to-be published Protecting Public Surface Transportation Against Terrorism and Serious Crime, the third in an ongoing study by MTI on terrorism in surface transportation, by Brian M. Jenkins and Larry N. Gerston