Tackling security? Take a risk-based approach

Railway Age, Dec, 2006

The Transportation Security Administration has partnered with Amtrak and Niagara Frontier Transit Authority (Buffalo, N.Y.) on a new pilot program. Agency officials, along with the Cheektowaga, N.Y. police, screened riders and baggage at various station locations throughout November.

Canine teams and hand-held, explosive trace-detection devices added another layer of protection of riders and employees alike, according to NFTA Executive Director Lawrence Meckler. "Terrorism is not a traditional criminal activity," he said. "We have to adjust our security strategies to make it more difficult to plan and carry out."

In the future, these screenings will be conducted randomly and during levels of increased threat. Such a risk-based approach is critical, according to TSA Federal Security Director-Buffalo David Bassett. "Delivering the best security we can means using risk to guide our decisions--maximizing our resources by directing them where they are needed most," he said. "Working with our network of local, federal, and industry partners, it is our intent to identify the areas of greatest risk throughout our local passenger transportation systems and act to prevent attacks."

Meanwhile, TSA has formed a Transit Policing and Security Peer Advisory Group. Its purpose: to help build "a collaborative relationship" among the transit law enforcement/security community, TSA, Federal Transit Administration, and Department of Homeland Security's Office of Grants and Training, and "facilitate communications, exchange of information, and application of expertise in the development of transit security strategies, programs, and initiatives." It includes police chiefs from Amtrak, MBTA, New York MTA, NJ Transit, WMATA, MARTA, Chicago TA, Greater Cleveland RTA, Houston Metro, Denver RTD, King County (Wash.) Metro, BART, and LAMTA.