"Registered Traveler : Airport express program stuck with only a fast lane"

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Airport express program stuck with only a fast lane
Tech innovations kept away from security process
By Joe Sharkey
The New York (NY) Times


The Registered Traveler program was supposed to offer regular air travelers
the technology that would speed them through airport security. But now that
the technology has hit big road bumps, the program has, for the time being,
evolved into something else.

It is now best described as a "go to the head of the line" pass, providing
customer service to help program members navigate the bottlenecks at
security checkpoints.

"I look at it as the process of going through security," said Steven Brill,
the entrepreneur whose company, Verified Identity Pass Inc., is the leading
Registered Traveler operator. "You show up at an airport, and what you care
about is having the most hassle-free, predictable and convenient process
that you can."

The program's two widely promoted initial technological innovations have
been an electronic shoe scanner, developed by Brill's company, that is
supposed to allow members to keep their shoes on at checkpoints, and a
biometrically encoded identity card for members who have paid the annual fee
of $99.95 and passed a federal check to verify that their names are not on
terrorist watch lists. The Transportation Security Administration has not
allowed either innovation to be integrated into the security checkpoint
process.

Still, the program has been growing steadily, if not at the aggressive pace
proponents had envisioned when they thought the shoe scanner and other
technology would be in use by now. There are more than 80,000 Registered
Traveler members who have access to special Registered Traveler lanes
operated by three companies at 14 airports - 12 operated by Brill's company
under the brand name Clear, and two others operated by two small competitors
who each operate at a single airport. Airports in San Francisco and San Jose
opened Clear travel lanes earlier this year.

The story of the shoe scanner is the most obvious indication of the
program's technology troubles. The scanner, which is supposed to be able to
detect a hidden weapon or explosive, was developed by General Electric and
built into security kiosks designed by GE and Verified Identity Pass.

On Oct. 9, after laboratory evaluations, the Transportation Security
Administration rejected the GE shoe scanner for a second time.

In an interview, the agency's director, Kip Hawley, said the agency had no
fundamental objection to the idea of such a machine. He said it was "bogus"
to suggest, as Brill and others have, that the TSA is sandbagging
private-sector security technology.

"We would love to have a shoe scanner that works," Hawley said. "The problem
is that it does not work."

After the latest rejection, Brill said he still believes that the machine -
along with other technology being developed that would allow Clear members
to avoid having to remove laptops from cases or take off their coats - will
eventually be approved.

Even his competitors give Brill credit for creating the Registered Traveler
market through sheer tenacity. "He's been a bull in a china shop," said Luke
Thomas, executive vice president of Brill's closest competitor, Flo Corp.

Flo, which was spun off by a struggling security company called Saflink,
recently acquired a registered traveler program called rtGo from the Unisys
Corp. Flo has a single location at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport but
plans a major expansion next year, Thomas said.

Flo recently commissioned a survey that showed that 80 percent of business
travelers would pay $99 a year just for a "consistently expeditious
security-checkpoint process, without any other benefits" like a shoe
scanner.

Thomas said Flo plans to introduce technology as it becomes feasible. He
said the company is working aggressively with corporate travel managers to
sell rtGo as a program offering customer service benefits like concierge
service at the checkpoint.

The shoe scanner hasn't been the only technology to suffer glitches. The
program's basic tool, a biometric identity card encoded with a member's
fingerprints and iris scans, is not accepted by the TSA.

Clear members have complained that after they swipe their biometric cards at
the kiosk, they are still required to present a driver's license with
photograph or other standard government identity card to a federal screener
at the checkpoint a few feet away.

Hawley said the TSA is "comfortable" with the security of the biometric card
itself. The subsequent check is required, he said, because Registered
Traveler members file into regular checkpoints, and screeners cannot
reliably tell them from unregistered travelers.

Program operators and the TSA have settled on a partial solution to double
carding. Starting next year, Registered Traveler identity cards will carry
individual photos, and the TSA will accept them as proof of identity at
checkpoints that have a Registered Traveler presence. But members will still
have to show their cards twice - once at the Registered Traveler kiosk and
again at the TSA checkpoint.

"I think it's ridiculous to put a picture on a biometric card, because the
whole point of biometrics is pictures aren't a very good form of ID, and
biometrics are," Brill said. "But if they want a picture on the card, we'll
put a picture on the card."

On the web:

The Commodification of Airport Security Access 
http://www.californiaaviation.org/weblog/2007/01/commodification-of-airport-
security


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