Aviation Security: Biometric Technology and Risk Based Security Aviation Passenger Screening Program

Since 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has struggled to maintain a balance between providing a secure world-class aviation passenger-screening program (APSP) while providing efficiency, convenience and security for the traveling public and the airline industry. For years the TSA has applied resources and procedures uniformly to all passengers during aviation passenger screening. It is mainly a one size fits all screening where all passengers are treated as equal risk, which has exponentially increased resources, procedures and equipment required to do aviation passenger screening, Recently, the Transportation Security Administration has sought to find a better way to conduct aviation passenger screening and is transitioning to Risk Based Security (RBS). The RBS initiatives have greatly improved the aviation passenger screening experience while increasing the efficiency of checkpoint screening by shortening the amount of wait times. Furthermore, it has allowed resources to be applied to high-risk individuals and lessen the burden of passenger screening on low-risk individuals. This has freed up resources reduced procedures while simultaneously increasing the efficiency of the checkpoint. The research here provides options on how to better enable current RBS initiatives by incorporating biometric technology into the aviation passenger-screening program. This research has reviewed other government programs that have incorporated biometrics into their procedures to improve the efficiency and reliability by using biometrically enhanced security measures. Through the application or modification of these biometrically enhanced security programs of other agencies, the TSA could standardize and incorporate biometrics into the RBS APSP allowing for authentication of both identity verification and identification. This research will explore how to incorporate biometrics into the current Risk-Based Security Aviation Passenger Screening Program.