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TSA's Risk-based Approach to Security

George Naccara is betting that the lift of his risk-based reforms will overcome the drag of politics and bureaucracy. And the test bed for these innovations is Boston's Logan Airport

For example, technology is now being tested to prevent people from using exits to enter secure areas and entrances to exit them. The question of jurisdiction over these doors is complicated, involving Massport, TSA, the airlines and the state police. But, says Ventresca, "Massport is shelling out the dough for the technology, [and] TSA's going to test it."

The fact that the various stakeholders managed to overcome ego and turf issues enough to get the tech trial off the ground counts as a minor miracle to some. "It's not like this at other airports," says one Logan TSA staffer. "And it's barely like this here."

Logan's TSA managers are quick with stories about how behind the shiny success story there exists a creaky scaffolding built from these sorts of tangled relationships and fudged jurisdictions. Sources recountedthough not for attributioncountless turf battles and other comic scenes where a security incident would lead to "eight or nine guys in suits, all from different agencies, arriving at the checkpoint at the same time to take credit." One manager ranted for 10 minutes about TSA's IT supplier having ridiculously restrictive controls that hamper the agency's ability to be flexible. That IT supplier puts stickers with its logos on all its equipment. As a passive-aggressive commentary, an anonymous TSA staffer started pasting those stickers on TVs and elsewhere around the office.

The TSA Ops Center in Boston, where staffers not only manage Logan security but also take in most of the security intel from across the country (it's also where Ventresca's throughput analysis software runs), still uses a dial-up network connection. "I feel 10 years younger in here," one TSA staffer in the office deadpans.

Besides slagging the IT supplier, TSA employees were heard to rip Congress and the media for ignorance about risk; the FBI for its turf battles (including an incident where FBI agents locked TSA staffers out of a TSA office because the agents were having what they said was a confidential meeting); its own technology research group for a lack of vision and purpose ("they're nice people, but useless; we basically work around them"); and the agency's headquarters in Washington for not pushing even harder for the Logan way, and thus slowing progress toward better aviation security.

Naccara is more diplomatic, saying that the cooperation that exists at Logan is exemplary, that the subjugation of egos and managing of red tape is a positive, and that his relationship with Washington is "good." But those underneath him are blunter. "Dial-up!" the Ops Center staffer snorts. "Can you [flipping] believe it?"