TSA’s dogs win the day, by a nose
Airport canine teams sniff out the dangers — and speed up those checkpoints
Biko the German shepherd may be your ticket to a fast pass through airport security next time you travel.
The Transportation Security Administration has increased the ranks of sniffer dogs at the nation’s biggest airports, and the extra wet noses are cutting down on the long waits travelers experienced last year.
Biko doesn’t snarl. But his nails click on the linoleum floor as he scurries between passengers walking past red-padded airport seats. The TSA dog weaves between the guy wearing a T-shirt and khaki pants with a backpack and the younger woman with a pink-and-gray ball cap carrying a striped backpack.
Trouble arrives in the form of a bald, bearded guy in a red Hawaiian shirt carrying a black laptop bag. Biko tenses and pulls handler John Peeler to the bag before the man turns the corner.
It’s a simulated exercise, and the man is a role player carrying an actual explosive.
And the reward for Biko, a dog trained to detect a dozen scents of explosives? A rubber chew toy and a hug from Peeler.
“Biko places a lot of value on interaction,” said Peeler, a TSA training instructor. “I just tell him he’s a good boy.”
Speedier screening is one of the benefits of the TSA’s dog detection program, which has been a relief to travelers in the past year. In spring 2016, checkpoint lines grew to hours long at airports across the country through a confluence of reduced staffing and tighter security. By bolstering staffing with contributions from airlines and airports, the TSA moved 28 dog teams from smaller, lower-risk locations to higher-risk airports — and the lines evaporated.
After a dog has screened a regular checkpoint line, each passenger qualifies for the expedited Precheck program, where they can leave on shoes and belts and keep laptops and small containers of liquids in their bags.
“Explosive-detection canines are an important tool to increase screening efficiency at check-
points,” said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for MinneapolisSt. Paul International Airport, which received extra dog teams last summer. “We have seen a noticeable difference in how quickly the lines move when the dogs are working.”
The TSA maintains 1,047 teams of bomb-sniffing dogs and their handlers for about $152 million a year, which includes buying dogs and training them and their
handlers. The teams patrol 82 airports, along with 33 bus, rail and transit systems.
The TSA itself staffs 372 dog teams, most of them for airports. The agency also covers the $24,000 average cost to buy and train each dog and its handler to provide 675 dogs for state and local law enforcement agencies. Those 100 agencies commit to spending 80% of their time on transportation, such as ferries or mass transit.
Congress is debating adding hundreds more — if the money can be found.
“More dog teams are needed to detect explosives and serve as visible deterrents to terrorists at airports, rail, transit and ports across the country,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
A lane at a security checkpoint that typically handles 150 passengers an hour can process up to 250 an hour with canine teams.
Passengers like the dogs, even if they’re not for petting. John Boyd of Marina Del Rey, Calif., a global trade consultant and part of USA TODAY’s Road Warriors panel of frequent travelers, said he prefers the dogs to heavily armed officers who also patrol airports.
“It brings an added level of comfort and calming feel to the TSA lines,” Boyd said.
Bombs remain a threat in the air after a Russian Metrojet blew up over Egypt in October 2015 and a laptop bomb blew a hole in a Daallo Airlines flight in Somalia in January 2016. Dogs are an important contributor to security because of their mobility in patrolling public areas of airports after the Brussels airport bombing in March 2016 and the shooting deaths at the Fort Lauderdale airport in January 2017.
“You can move that capability toward wherever that threat is,” said Chris Shelton, branch manager of the TSA’s National Canine Training Center in San Antonio. “With a big piece of machinery bolted to the floor, you can’t do that.”
Anthony Roman, an aviation security expert and a commercial pilot who is president of Roman & Associates in Lynbrook, N.Y., said the mobility and unpredictability of where dogs will be offers another layer of security with Xray machines and surveillance cameras with facial recognition.
“They have a terrific record of success, and yes, we need many more of these dogs,” Roman said. Terrorists “never really know where the dog is going to be, and they never know if the dog is going to target them.”
“They have a terrific record of success, and yes, we need many more of these dogs.”
Anthony Roman, aviation security expert