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TSA Continues Security Enhancements at Major Local Transportation Facilities

News & Happenings

June 14, 2007

VIPR Teams

In July 2005, in concert with the one-year anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, TSA began deploying Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams comprised of federal air marshals, surface transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, behavior detection officers and explosives detection canine teams to transportation facilities around the country.

That effort initially focused on the rail sector, but just before Memorial Day 2007, VIPR teams were also being dispatched to the Point Judith (Block Island) Ferry Terminal in Rhode Island as well as other highly-traveled transportation systems in the greater-Providence area.

Those security initiatives in the Providence area are just the latest result of TSA networking locally with stakeholders in various modes of transportation to help augment security at key transportation facilities in urban areas around the country.

The teams work with local security and law enforcement officials to supplement existing security resources, provide deterrent presence and detection capabilities, and introduce an element of unpredictability to disrupt potential terrorist planning activities.

While there are no specific, credible threats to these systems at this time, these teams improve inter-agency communications and our ability to leverage resources quickly," said Joseph S. Salter, TSA's federal security director for Rhode Island. "Working closely with our transportation partners and law enforcement, we will ensure resources are deployed efficiently and in a complementary fashion, providing an effective first line of defense against terrorism."