CAT/BPSS - Automatic ID/Boarding Pass Checker

You're probably wondering what exactly CAT/BPSS stands for, right? It's been making the news over the past week, but if you haven't read about the technology, it stands for Credential Authentication Technology/Boarding Pass Scanning System. I prefer to call it the ID Thingamabob.

Short Story: It detects fake documents and IDs.

Slightly Longer Story: This is a seriously cool piece of technology that enhances security and increases efficiency by automatically and concurrently comparing a passenger's ID and boarding pass to a set of security features. It verifies that neither have been falsified and that the information on both match. The system also verifies the IDs of airline personnel and can screen a wide range of travel documents.

Just last month, we purchased a total of 30 systems that will be deployed at select airports for further operational testing early next year. The airports included in our TSA Pre✓™ program (DFW, MIA, DTW, ATL) will be among some of the first recipients of the systems.

What should passengers expect once we begin to test these in airports? Passengers will hand their ID to the TSA Travel Document Checker (TDC) who will scan it while the passenger scans their own boarding pass using a built in scanner that's part of the technology. Once the scan is complete, the technology automatically and permanently deletes the information from the system. Here's a link to the Privacy Impact Assessment for the technology.

If testing proves successful, TSA could deploy the technology to airports nationwide. Our officers at airports that are not part of the operational testing will continue to verify travel documents with the aid of lights and loupes, as one of many layers of security.

Read more about IDs  Here

Blogger Bob
TSA Blog Team


If you’d like to comment on an unrelated topic you can do so in our Off Topic Comments post. You can also view our blog post archives or search our blog to find a related topic to comment in. If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact a Customer Support Manager at the airport you traveled, or will be traveling through by using Talk to TSA.

TSA To Pilot Using QR Codes® on Checkpoint Signage

TSA understands the usefulness and the power of QR codes^® and we’re about to start using them in a few airports to see how well the codes work with our checkpoint signage. First off, if you’ve never used or even heard of a QR Code^®, you’re probably wondering what it is. Let me explain…

QR Codes^® are two-dimensional codes readable by barcode readers on smartphones. If your phone doesn’t come with a reader, they’re available from multiple sources on the Internet for free. When the code is scanned, your phone will take you directly to a web page or other information without having to type any information into your phone.

This is a perfect way to say more with the limited space of traditional signage. For example, we can have a sign with a couple of tips about traveling with children, but by providing a QR code^®, we can point your smartphone to a video or a page with much more information. This is something you can review before the checkpoint, or you can bookmark it and read it later if you’re in a hurry.

We’ll be using the codes for lost and found info, customer service, procedural information, travel tips and more! If you have any ideas or suggestions, be sure to leave us a comment.

QR Code is registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED

Blogger Bob

TSA Blog Team 

If you’d like to comment on an unrelated topic you can do so in our Off Topic Comments post. You can also view our blog post archives or search our blog to find a related topic to comment in. If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact a Customer Support Manager at the airport you traveled, or will be traveling through by using Talk to TSA.

 

Known Traveler Passenger Screening Pilot

In the last several months you've heard us talking about applying more risk-based screening procedures to our security checkpoints, based upon the latest intelligence. Well, the time has come and in the Fall, we will begin a passenger screening pilot for a select group of travelers who volunteer more information about themselves. If we can confirm a person's identity and learn a little more about them through information they opt to provide, and then combine that information with our other layers of security, we can strengthen air travel security for all Americans while at the same time speeding up the screening process for those participating in the pilot.

During the first phase of testing, certain frequent fliers and certain members of CBP's Trusted Traveler programs, including members of Global Entry, SENTRI, and NEXUS, who are U.S. citizens will be eligible to participate in this pilot, which could qualify them for expedited screening.

At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County airports, certain frequent fliers from Delta Air Lines and certain members of CBP's Trusted Traveler programs who are U.S. citizens and who are also flying on Delta will be eligible to participate in the pilot.

At Miami International and Dallas Fort Worth International airports, certain frequent fliers from American Airlines and certain members of CBP's Trusted Traveler programs who are U.S. citizens and who are also flying on American will be eligible.

TSA plans to expand this pilot to include United Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue, US Airways, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines, as well as additional airports, once operationally ready. If this pilot proves successful, it would help us focus our resources on higher-risk and unknown passengers, while expediting screening for lower-risk and known passengers whenever possible.

Only those passengers who initially agree to "opt in" from those populations will have the opportunity to participate at this time. And of course, passengers are always subject to random, unpredictable screening measures and at no point would participation in this pilot automatically qualify a passenger for permanent expedited screening. 

This will very much be a work in progress. It's important to remember that this is starting off as a pilot program - an effort to validate our ideas on how to move forward. But, if successful it is a substantial shift away from the one size fits all and we think you'll like it. 

Blogger Bob

TSA Blog Team

If you’d like to comment on an unrelated topic you can do so in our Off Topic Comments post. You can also view our blog post archives or search our blog to find a related topic to comment in. If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact a Customer Support Manager at the airport you traveled, or will be traveling through by using Talk to TSA. 

Pilots for Pilots

One of the requirements of the 9/11 Bill asked TSA to look at ways to enhance security by identifying airline flight deck crew members (pilots) and giving them a faster way to get through security.

TSA is now piloting a couple of ways to meet this requirement, which will get pilots to their planes a little faster without compromising security.

The Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) is currently testing a system called CrewPass at Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI), Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) and Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE) in South Carolina. At these three airports, pilots using specified exit lanes approach the Transportation Security Officer at the podium and present their airline badge. The officer enters the pilot’s badge number into a device. The pilot’s face appears on the screen allowing the officer to ensure that both faces match up.

Concurrently, testing of another system is being done at BWI called Secure Screen. Developed with Southwest Airlines, this program is currently in use for participating Southwest Airline pilots only flying out of BWI. Similar to CrewPass, they arrive at a specified exit lane and approach the officer on duty. They present their pilot’s badge and at the same time enter a “clear key” - similar to a USB drive - into a reader. The reader displays the photo of the pilot and waits for the pilot to place their thumb or finger on the clear key. The system verifies that the biometric thumb print matches the fingerprint being placed on it. This system combines identification verification with a biometric component.


Commercial flight deck crew members are responsible for the safety of hundreds of passengers at any time and are trusted to operate million dollar aircraft on a daily basis. Allowing them to move more efficiently through the security process, while also being able to verify they are who they say they are, fits into our risk-based security approach.

Bob

EoS Blog Team

What’s the Best Way to Screen Airport Employees?

For some time, there's been debate on whether TSA should implement 100 percent screening of airport employees every time they enter the secure area of an airport. We screen passengers every time they get on a plane, so some say we should screen airport employees every time they go into a secure area of an airport, including baggage facilities, gate areas, and airplanes. After all, they say, if a bad guy had access to critical areas of the airport, they could pull off an inside job.

It’s important to note that airport employees who require access to secure areas of airports must pass a background investigation to obtain an access badge. Through the background check, we know a lot about these airport employees, and they are also well-known to other airport workers who see them every day and would know if something didn’t look right.

Currently at all airports, TSA officers can be deployed anywhere at anytime to inspect workers, their property and vehicles. These officers ensure workers follow proper access procedures when entering secure areas, display the appropriate credentials and do not possess items unrelated to their work that may pose a security threat.

Earlier this week, TSA began an employee screening pilot program in seven airports, as required by Congress in January 2008. The pilot programs started on May 5 and will run for 90 days.

Seven airports will participate in the pilot, representing different locations and airport sizes. One hundred percent employee screening at either the checkpoint or airport perimeter gates will be conducted at Boston Logan International Airport, Jacksonville International Airport in Florida, and Craven Regional Airport in New Bern, North Carolina. This means that every time an employee has to enter the secure area, they have to be screened. At these airports, there may be slightly longer checkpoint wait times for passengers and employees, particularly during peak times, as the volume of traffic will increase.

Denver International Airport in Colorado; Kansas City International Airport in Missouri; Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in North Bend, Oregon; and Eugene Airport in Oregon will conduct layered, enhanced employee screening methods. These include increased random physical screening and the deployment of portable equipment to screen employees throughout the airport environment. Additionally, we will be providing behavior detection training for law enforcement officials and airport operations/security personnel and employee security awareness training to enable these individuals to identify potential security risks.

The Homeland Security Institute will assist in collecting results, evaluating the programs and reporting the results to Congress in December 2008. They’ll be looking at efficiency and effectiveness of the pilot programs, required costs to implement comparable activities at all commercial airports, staffing requirements, necessary infrastructure improvements, and passenger and employee wait times, among other things.

We look forward to seeing the results, and as soon as we can, we’ll report them on the blog. If you’re going through one of the airports in the pilot, let us know how things went for you.

Lynn
TSA EoS Blog Team

Diamonds Are a Passenger’s Best Friend (Diamond Lane Program Expands to 3 More Airports)

The Diamond Lane Self Select Program is spreading like snow on the hills of the ski resorts of Salt Lake City and Denver where the program first originated. The program rolled out yesterday in Spokane, Washington and rolls out today in Boston and Orlando.

We've all been there. You've got your jacket and shoes off, laptop out, liquids and gels in a baggie… You're ready to roll, but you have to wait behind a large family or group of inexperienced travelers. It's frustrating. It's also frustrating for the inexperienced passengers as well because they are feeling the pressure and hearing the obvious sighs of frustration and the foot tapping from the frequent flyers in line behind them.

It's almost like when you're at a grocery store and you only want to buy a pack of gum. You find yourself in line behind somebody with an overflowing cart of groceries and they aren't making any offerings of letting you jump ahead. That's exactly why grocery stores implemented the express lanes and that's what we're doing with the Diamond Lane Self Select program.

I know what you're thinking… Some folks who consider themselves to be experts most likely aren't. Kind of like the person who jumps into the express lane at the grocery store with 28 items instead of 12. How do you remedy that? There are a couple of ways. Part of the program requires an officer as a guide working in the front of the queue lines to help direct passengers and answer questions. Also, just as in the express lanes at grocery stores, anybody who jumps in the wrong line is likely to experience unhappy passengers who will greet them with comments and sighs. Self policing if you will…

What have we learned so far since our last update on the blog? Throughput has increased up to 35 percent during our busiest peak times in the expert lanes at the pilot airports. In fact, in Salt Lake City, a news crew covering the program had to wait several hours to experience a 5 minute wait time.

Also, now that inexperienced travelers aren't feeling the heat from road warriors, they're doing a much better job preparing for screening. We're seeing a dramatic drop in the number of banned items we're discovering in the family lane. All this adds up to a more satisfied passenger, a very good thing in itself but not the only benefit. By allowing passengers to self-select, the checkpoint as a whole is a less stressful place.

By creating this calmer environment, suspicious behavior stands out better, allowing our behavior detection officers to do their jobs more effectively. Where are we going? The TSA plans to roll out the Diamond Lane Self Select program at a minimum of 3 more airports by the end of April. Stay tuned…

Bob
TSA EoS Blog Team