From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Security in Airport Public Areas

Description: GAO issued a report assessing how TSA is handling security
in airports’ public areas.

Related GAO Work: GAO-20-278: Aviation Security: TSA and Airport
Stakeholders Have Enhanced Airport Public Area Security, but a Plan Is
Needed for Future Collaboration

Released: February 2020

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[Bill Russell:] TSA and airport stakeholders have enhanced airport
public area security. But more needs to be done.

[ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news
and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt
Oldham. Threats to public areas of airports have increased in recent
years. Congress has passed two laws to address security planning and
response in the public areas of airports: the 2015 Gerardo Hernandez Act
and the 2018 TSA Modernization Act. Bill Russell, a Homeland Security
and Justice director at GAO, is with me to talk about a report assessing
TSA's actions toward securing airport public areas. Thanks for joining
me, Bill. 

[Bill Russell:] Thanks for having me. 

[Matt Oldham:] Bill, first off; a definition. What are "public areas" of
airports? 

[Bill Russell:] Think about when you arrive at the airport terminal, you
go inside, what we're talking about here is the ticketing counters,
baggage claim, if you're going to stop and get a coffee along the way,
that would all be within the public space of the airport. Pretty much
until you get to the security checkpoint.

[Matt Oldham:] And are these areas safer today than they were five years
ago?

[Bill Russell:] So, TSA and other transportation aviation security
stakeholders have enhanced security, largely since 2013, when there was
an active shooter at Los Angeles International Airport where,
unfortunately, a Transportation Security Officer was killed in the line
of duty. So, since that time, a number of things have changed. Just to
name a few, TSA established duress alarms at the checkpoint. So, if
there's an incident starting to emerge, they can alert local law
enforcement. They also really put in a sound program around active
shooter training and drills so that their folks know what to do in those
situations. In addition to the active shooter training, and the duress
alarms, they've also taken steps to ensure that local law enforcement
can respond quickly, in those types of events. They also put together a
public area security working group of key aviation security stakeholders
to talk about what are the best practices across the nation's airports
so they can share that information and start to implement improvements
there. And that resulted, in 2017, in 11 best practices to enhance the
security of public spaces.

[Matt Oldham:] So, it sounds like in response to shootings at airports,
in public areas, the TSA is working on figuring out how to respond
better and how to train people for these scenarios. And they've starting
a working group with stakeholders. Bill, is it important that this
working group continues to meet?

[Bill Russell:] Absolutely. The public area security working group is
really the collection of key aviation security stakeholders. TSA really
takes the lead in pulling that together. And they met twice in 2019, but
they had no plans to meet in the future. And what we found is that it's
important, given the persistent threats in the airport public spaces,
that they continue to meet, revisit best practices, develop a plan for
how they're going to communicate and go through that process. And we
made a recommendation to that effect.

[Matt Oldham:] Were there any other recommendations for TSA?

[Bill Russell:] That was the one recommendation we had for this report.
TSA did agree with that recommendation and we are going to continue to
monitor their efforts to implement it.

[Matt Oldham:] I think we can assume the threat itself isn't going away.

[Bill Russell:] That's right. TSA, and those stakeholders, need to
remain vigilant. As recently as September 2019, there was an active
shooter in the baggage claim area of Portland airport.

[Matt Oldham:] So, final question, what's the bottom line of this
report?

[Bill Russell:] The bottom line is that TSA and airport stakeholders
have enhanced airport public area security, but more needs to be done.
And part of that is just planning and thinking ahead of what the next
threats and risks are going to be, and then responding appropriately.

[Matt Oldham:] Bill Russell was talking about a GAO report assessing
what TSA has done to secure airport public areas in recent years. Thank
you for your time, Bill.

[Bill Russell:] Thank you.

[Matt Oldham:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To
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For more from the Congressional Watchdog, the U.S. Government
Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.gov.

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