Travelore News: TSA Is Reimagining Airport Security Checkpoints: First Self-Service Kiosk Opens Next Month

TSA is working on three new security systems that reimagine airport checkpoints, investing in technology to screen more passengers effectively using self-service rather than scaling up the number of screeners the government employs. Passengers will start using the first one beginning next month.

Here’s what they’re working on.

Pod-based design with individual screening consoles, carry-on screening system and flat panel passenger screening

In-motion panel sensors for screening as passengers move through checkpoints​​​​

Integrated carry-on bag conveyance system with security equipment and automated entry and exit doors​​

The first test project is rolling out at the Las Vegas airport. PreCheck passengers will complete the security process independently, using individual consoles or lanes. Passengers will be prompted by machines through each screening step.

Starting in January, PreCheck passengers in Vegas can test out an automated screening lane with carry-on bag conveyance system. They’ll be given instructions by a video monitor. And they’ll go through automated entry and exit doors.

Passengers who don’t pass screening the first time, for instance leaving items in their pocket, the entry door will open back up for them to take those items out and be re-screened. When passengers clear screening, the automated exit door opens and instructs them to gather their belongings.

System To Be Tested In January, Credit: Department Of Homeland Security

TSA describes the project as part of its effort to “increase screening efficiency and improve the passenger experience while keeping a stable number of Transportation Security Officers” or put another way: spend massively on capital equipment to avoid hiring more people.

Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is.” But that’s only because he came too early to know about selling new technologies and equipment to the TSA. One after another, generation after generation of the latest TSA-promoted technology eventually ends up mothballed from backscatter machines and Rapiscan and now we have analogic screening devices meant to speed up checkpoints actually slowing them down. Here we have contracts with Micro-X, Vanderlande Industries, and Voxel Radar. That second one can’t be real, right?

Ultimately, TSA is supposed to prevent dangerous items from going through security checkpoints, which requires on focusing on dangerous items and not sci-fi plots. It requires a focus on real threats and not taking scissors away. But that’s not even correct. TSA itself has said there were no known threats against aviation, it’s all hypothetical. And if there were, hardening airport checkpoints just pushes the threat to somewhere else. It doesn’t make people safer, but it prevents TSA from being blamed for the next disaster because it’ll happen outside its area of responsibility.

https://viewfromthewing.com/author/viewfromthewing/