Firms push high-tech solutions to fortify airport perimeters
Technology firms increasingly pitch new sensors and software to U.S. airports as a way to bolster exterior security and keep intruders out, but such digital barriers come with a hefty price tag and don’t always work.
An Associated Press investigation this week documented 268 instances in which people hopped over, crawled under, drove cars through or otherwise breached the fences and gates protecting the perimeters of 31 of the nation’s busiest airports from January 2004 through January 2015.
How to address the problem is up for debate.
“There’s a lot of things that can be done,” said John Pistole, retired director of the Transportation Security Administration, who, like airport officials, argues the perimeters are secure and that breaches are rare. “The question is whether there’s an appetite for paying for it.”
Congressman Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said the number of airport breaches over the past decade is cause for action and that new technologies should be installed on perimeters.
“Bringing down an airliner and killing innocent Americans remains our enemies’ highest-value target. Porous airport perimeters are major vulnerabilities that terrorists could exploit,” he said. “I’m continuing to call for airports to use technologies that would alert officials the moment a perimeter is breached.”
While the TSA is responsible for screening passengers and baggage, airports are responsible for securing perimeters, typically with a mix of private security guards and airport police. Airports won’t disclose specifics, but some measures are known: Fencing — typically a minimum of 6-feet high — surrounds U.S. airports, and it often is topped with barbed or razor wire. Additionally, security gates help restrict access to airfields.
Most major airports also use video cameras, and guards are supposed to patrol regularly — but staffing varies. At Los Angeles International, through which more than 32 million passengers travel each year, the police agency employs some 1,100 law enforcement and civilian personnel. Florida’s Tampa airport, with about 8 million passengers a year, lists 173 employees in its police agency, 66 of them sworn officers.
Differences in the facilities themselves present other security challenges: Some are edged by water, others busy business districts. In Las Vegas, the rowdy Strip is nearby, and Philadelphia’s main airport is adjacent to a road that’s the scene of illegal drag racing.
Some facilities do go beyond the basics. Located near the TexasMexico border, McAllen-Miller International Airport installed optic fibers in its fences in 2009 over concerns about violence spilling across the Rio Grande. The technology, which also is used at U.S. nuclear facilities, can immediately detect an intrusion and send an alert, said Samuel Kassey, vice president of one supplier, LaseOptics Corp.
McAllen airport director Elizabeth Suarez said that despite some false alarms, the technology has worked well. She could not provide information about cost.
“I’d prefer to handle a false alarm with staff verifying that nothing has breached the perimeter than not having an alarm at all,” said Suarez.
Thermal imaging firms claim several major U.S. airports as clients, though they won’t name which. By detecting heat, thermal cameras can serve as a virtual trip wire and also improve nighttime visibility.
In 2006, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which oversees John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and Teterboro airports, awarded Raytheon a $100-million contract for a much-touted “perimeter intrusion detection system.”
The system includes motion-detection cameras, “smart-fence” sensors, night-vision cameras, perimeter alarms — even a power subsystem to bypass outages, according to Raytheon’s promotional materials. The company promised a 95 percent detection rate of people, vehicles or watercraft.