The holiday travel season will soon be upon us as will the joys of going through airport security. As a frequent flyer, I have an almost systematic method for removing my shoes, placing my computer in a separate bin and placing my plastic bag full of three ounce liquids and gels into the grey basket. The latter requirement being among the newest of the major aviation security requirements.
Having to limit your liquids and gels and remember your plastic bag for the airport resulted from a liquid based explosives plot against transatlantic flights from the U.K. to the U.S in 2006. That plot and the three ounce rule that followed has placed the aviation sector at Code Orange under the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) since that time.
The HSAS has endured withering and often unfair criticism over the years. Recently, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano commissioned a review of the system. One of the recommendations was to do away with Code Blue and Green and go with a three tiered approach: Yellow (guarded risk), Orange (high risk) and Red (severe risk). I agree with that recommendation. Yellow is the steady state of security. In truth, it has been that way for many years. That is why placing the aviation sector at Code Orange after three plus years since originally raising the alert level undermines the purpose of “going up.”
When the alert level is raised it should be done to surge protective measures based on a specific threat, which by definition is not meant to be sustained over long periods of time. In fact, the team that reviewed the HSAS on behalf of Secretary Napolitano recommended that certain triggers be put in place to lower the threat level in the absence of new intelligence. After three years, in the case of the restriction on liquids, DHS should do away with the restriction or have it subsumed into normal operations at Code Yellow, leaving other surge protective measures to make-up the security protocols of Code Orange. I support the latter approach as there will be no degrading of security just a recognition that plastic bags and mini bottles are yet another part of the post 9/11 “new normal.”
Having to limit your liquids and gels and remember your plastic bag for the airport resulted from a liquid based explosives plot against transatlantic flights from the U.K. to the U.S in 2006. That plot and the three ounce rule that followed has placed the aviation sector at Code Orange under the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) since that time.
The HSAS has endured withering and often unfair criticism over the years. Recently, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano commissioned a review of the system. One of the recommendations was to do away with Code Blue and Green and go with a three tiered approach: Yellow (guarded risk), Orange (high risk) and Red (severe risk). I agree with that recommendation. Yellow is the steady state of security. In truth, it has been that way for many years. That is why placing the aviation sector at Code Orange after three plus years since originally raising the alert level undermines the purpose of “going up.”
When the alert level is raised it should be done to surge protective measures based on a specific threat, which by definition is not meant to be sustained over long periods of time. In fact, the team that reviewed the HSAS on behalf of Secretary Napolitano recommended that certain triggers be put in place to lower the threat level in the absence of new intelligence. After three years, in the case of the restriction on liquids, DHS should do away with the restriction or have it subsumed into normal operations at Code Yellow, leaving other surge protective measures to make-up the security protocols of Code Orange. I support the latter approach as there will be no degrading of security just a recognition that plastic bags and mini bottles are yet another part of the post 9/11 “new normal.”
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