When the Transportation Security Administration moves over to the Homeland Security Department March 1, it will need to demonstrate that it can effectively coordinate security for all modes of transportation, not just aviation. Since its inception a little over a year ago, TSA has been almost entirely focused on air travel. To be sure, the agency was under tight congressional deadlines to hire tens of thousands of passenger and baggage screeners. Having met those deadlines, the agency must now turn its attention to other modes of transportation. “The mission of TSA is not the aviation security administration, it is transportation,” Michael Jackson, the Transportation Department’s deputy secretary, said at a Feb. 26 press briefing. “We have to think about the importance of the entire transportation network. It will not look in the trucking industry, for example, the way it looks in aviation. We will not have a standing army” of TSA officials at the nation’s trucking terminals. To that end, the TSA is working on a national security plan that will address all modes of transportation, according to TSA Administrator James Loy. Part of that plan will call for partnerships with the private sector. TSA must reach out to various industry groups to develop new security protocols, Loy said at the same press conference. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.