A comprehensive study of an Airport Manager’s roles and responsibilities for a secure airport
Hayden S. Segel
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Airport Security Programs
There are several security programs an airport manager may be directly responsible for. Depending on the airport size, an airport manager may delegate these programs to a deputy or administer them him or herself. These programs include, but are not limited to; Badging, Access Control, Perimeter Fencing, and Perimeter and Area Lighting.
Badging
A badging program can vary in degrees of simplicity and intricacy. The simplest or minimum requirement of a badging system is to generate a unique identification card for each employee that can be matched to that employee as means of positive identification. Specific guidance can be found in the Transportation Security Administration 's Aviation Security Directive 1542-04-08E. Under the directive, all current airport employee badge holders were required to submit additional documentation related to proof of identity and work authorization (Wilson, 2007)
These badges, most commonly referred to as SIDA (Secure Identification Display Area) badges should not only be unique to the airport, but unique to one another, as in each one should be individually numbered. When issued to an individual employee, the badge should include a photograph of the employee; their full name should be clearly visible, along with an expiration date. Beyond that, numerous methods of data encoding could also be employed. This could include bar codes, QR codes, magnetic strips or microchips to store biometric data on the employee. For example, all full-time workers at Boston’s Logan International Airport have been issued new badges that incorporate biometric data on the workers ' fingerprints. The badges will work in tandem with the cameras ' rollback feature to not only provide a positive ID on who set
off an alarm at a certain
References: Benet Wilson (2007) New TSA Badge Rules Go Into Effect at Nation 's Airports Airport Security Report (2005) Logan updates employee badges to keep better tabs on workers Denise Marois (2004) TSA to require airport employee screening Aviation Weekly’s Airports Staff Writer (2005) Greater Orlando Aviation Authority needs perimeter fence improvements Barry Cross and Ben Vogel (2012) Outer Defence: The push for better HVM solutions Kathleen M. Sweet (2009) Aviation and airport security: terrorism and safety concerns