"Millions Spent on Securing Lindbergh Field Since Terror Attacks"

Monday, September 11, 2006

Millions Spent on Securing Lindbergh Field Since Terror Attacks 
Transportation: Airport Authority Turns to Digital System to Keep Facility
Safe
BY AMY YARNALL
The San Diego (CA) Business Journal


In the five years since Sept. 11, 2001, Lindbergh Field has spent more than
$5 million trying to improve security at the nation's busiest single-runway
airport.

Those expenditures include installing a digital card reader system for
employees throughout the 660-acre complex, as well as upgrading and
expanding the facility's old digital video surveillance system.

"Since 9/11, we've improved and enhanced operations," said Mark Denari,
director of aviation security and public safety for the San Diego County
Regional Airport Authority. 

Denari and his staff of 10 are the airport's first line of defense against
terrorist threats.

He came to Lindbergh in 2003 after eight years of service at San Francisco
International Airport, one of the busiest airports on the West Coast.

"When I came to San Diego I inherited two baseline security systems," Denari
said. "They were the access control system and the closed circuit television
system. These were installed in the early '90s." 

There are approximately 5,300 people with an ID card spread across 26 air
carriers, contractors service companies and employees. At any peak time
there is about 1,000 people moving around the air side (where airplanes are
located). 

The imminent risk of someone losing their ID is similar to losing one's
house key, but the threat is aimed at airport security.

The advanced card reader system requires additional steps to verify IDs,
Denari said.

Technological Upgrades

The airport's closed circuit TV system has been expanded in the past two
years, upgrading the technology from an archaic analog system to digital.

It's like using a tape deck and then upgrading to a compact disc player,
said Denari.

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