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Fliers to Be Rated for Risk Level By Sara Kehaulani Goo 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."
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