Alternative Device Configurations for Aviation-Checked Baggage Security Screening - Essay Example

The article is an evaluation of the technologies deployed in the explosive detection and their cost effectiveness, including possible future technologies. It considers both two-device and single-device systems and their associated annual operating costs. According to Jacobson et al (2005), the Federal Aviation Administration used the computer-aided passenger prescreening system (CAPPS) in 1998 to determine which passengers to clear from being potential security risks and which not to clear. A cost model quantifying the expected yearly cost of screening various combinations of potential risks and non-risks was developed and analyzed, basing on data available before September 11, 2011.

The article established that excess screening of non-risk EDS baggage increases annual costs but the security increase per dollar used on the exercise is marginal, as opposed to the significantly enhanced security when only high-risk EDS baggage is screened. In the article, the cost model is extended to integrate the effect of deterrence. The authors define deterrence as the effect screening more checked baggage has on the system’s threat level. Ideally, it is the reduction of threat levels in the system, and, depending on the apparent cost of terrorist occurrence, screening 100 percent checked baggage effectively deters terrorist activities.

As described by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), attention directed towards high-risk and non-risk passengers are almost similar, since both ETDs and EDSs are used by the TSA to achieve 100 percent checked baggage screening. Deviating from previous work that concentrated on EDSs, a cost model is introduced by this article’s authors to measure the associated cost benefits of various configurations that involve both ETDs and EDSs. Additionally, they also introduce two alternatives; the dual energy backscatter (BACK) and XRAY machines, although they are currently not certified by the TSA.

The data supporting the cost models is classified into probability, cost, time and volume parameters, which are random variables based on testing before a device is granted TSA certification. The probability of checked baggage containing a threat is evaluated by TSA personnel based on the perceived level of threat and changes according to intelligence information. TSA uses three factors in determining a security device’s effective lifetime. The device should become obsolete technically after certain years irrespective of usage and be replaced.

Then it must wear out after prescribed years regardless of volumes handled, and after processing a prescribed volume, it must be replaced regardless of years of service. Technology distinguishes between a device alarm and system alarm in a multiple device system, where an alarm may be triggered by an object at any device within the system, or an alarm is triggered at every device along an objects path. The effectiveness of multiple device systems is that devices provide a check for each other and an alarm is only given by the system if there is agreement in all devices in an object’s path.