*EPF512 09/10/2004
Text: Transportation Agency Tests Screening Passengers for Explosives
(Technology scans passengers' documents, agency says) (470)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun testing at selected airports a technology that scans passengers' documents for traces of explosives.

Passengers whose documents alert the screener will be subjected to additional screening procedures, according to a September 9 TSA news release.

The agency said it also has been testing explosives-detection portals at a few airports.

Screening passengers for explosives has been recommended by the bipartisan Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission.

Following is the text of the news release:

(begin text)

Department of Homeland Security

Transportation Security Administration

September 9, 2004

TSA Testing New Technology to Enhance Security at Airports Test Checks Passenger Documents for Explosives at Reagan National Airport

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today that it is launching a pilot???pilot program??? at four airports in which passenger documents such as boarding passes or state driver's licenses will be scanned for traces of explosives.

The pilot, which begins this week at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), uses an Explosives Trace Detection Document Scanner, the same technology recently proved effective in TSA's Transit Rail Inspection Pilot Project in Connecticut.

"By leveraging results of last month's tests in the rail environment, TSA utilizes proven explosives detection technologies to safeguard the traveling public in another mode of transportation," said Rear Admiral David M. Stone, USN (Ret.), Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for TSA. "This test and others studying new trace explosives detection tools, passenger identification, and air cargo screening, illustrate TSA's commitment to improving security in all modes by utilizing the latest emerging technologies."

DCA is the first airport to conduct an operational test of the new equipment. The tests will be launched next week at Los Angeles International Airport, and at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport by the end of the month.

The Document Scanner analyzes samples collected by swiping the surface of a document over a collection disc and alerts the screener if explosive residue is detected. During the pilot, only passengers set aside for secondary screening at Terminal B's South Pier checkpoint will have their boarding passes scanned. If the Document Scanner alarms, the screener will implement additional screening procedures.

This pilot is one in a series of next-generation tools being tested by TSA. They include explosive-trace detection portals, which are being tested in four airports with nearly a dozen more to come online in the next year. The Registered Traveler Pilot Program, in place at five airports, is another innovative instrument to improve security through identity verification. Finally, in the air cargo arena, a six-airport test is using bulk Explosives Detection Systems (EDS) machines to screen non-containerized cargo.

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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