by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

Where you planning to fly to Orlando, FL, at the end of April for the annual meetings and exhibits of the National Rifle Association (NRA)? If so, and Delta Air Lines is going to be your carrier, you may be one of the first US passengers checked by a new program called the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) II.

Delta Air Lines was scheduled to start testing the new government plan in March at three undisclosed airports. CAPPS II will check a wide variety of background information and assign a threat level to everyone who buys a ticket for a commercial flight.

The system, ordered by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, will gather much more information on passengers than has been done previously, accessing a variety of commercial and government databases. Delta will try it out first, and a comprehensive system could be in place with all airlines by the end of the year.

The Washington Post reported that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has given Lockheed Martin Corp. a contract—initially valued at $12.8 million—to build the backbone of a vast electronic passenger-screening network to assess the background and threat potential of everyone who makes a flight reservation. The system will check such things as credit reports and bank account activity and compare passenger names with those on government watch lists.

Civil liberties groups and activists are objecting to the plan, seeing the potential for unconstitutional invasions of privacy and for database mix-ups that could lead to innocent people being branded security risks. The system would flag the boarding passes of passengers with one of three different color codes. The vast majority of passengers will be rated green and won’t be subjected to anything more than normal checks, while yellow will get extra screening, and red simply won’t fly.

“This system threatens to create a permanent blacklisted underclass of Americans who cannot travel freely,” said Katie Corrigan, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), according to Associated Press. The ACLU is also concerned about the level of accuracy of existing commercial data files, suggesting that past experience has shown such databases frequently include many errors.

There also is concern that the government is developing the system without revealing how information will be gathered and how long it will be kept.

Advocates say the system will weed out dangerous people while ensuring law-abiding citizens aren’t given unnecessary scrutiny.

Transportation officials say CAPPS II will use databases that already operate in line with privacy laws and won’t profile based on race, religion or ethnicity. James M. Loy, head of TSA, said the agency is “sensitive” to privacy concerns. The system will rely heavily on existing commercial databases containing names, telephone numbers, former addresses, marital status, financial records with employment information, and other information about virtually every adult American. That information will also be checked against government watch lists.

“What it (CAPPS II) does is have very fast access to existing databases so we can quickly validate the person’s identity,” Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said.

An oversight panel, which will include a member of the public, is being formed. TSA will set up procedures to resolve complaints by people who say they don’t belong on the watch lists.

Transportation Department spokesman Chet Lunner said a Federal Register notice saying the background information will be stored for 50 years is inaccurate. He said such information will be held only for people deemed security risks.

Jay Stanley, an ACLU spokesman, was skeptical. “When it says in print, 50 years, we’d like to see something else in print to counter that,” he said.

The CAPPS system originally was developed by Northwest Airlines in the early 1990s. It is being adapted by Lockheed Martin, which has participated in several other post-9/11 TSA contracts, including the testing and training of the current government force of airport security screeners.

Capt. Steve Luckey, an airline pilot who helped develop the system, said CAPPS II will help discern a passenger’s possible intentions before he gets on a plane.

Unlike the older system, in which data stays with the airlines’ reservation systems, the new setup will be managed by TSA. Only government officials with proper security clearance will be able to use it.

Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, which advocates airline safety and security, is skeptical the system will work.

The initial test by Delta Air Lines this spring will also be used to fine tune the developing CAPPS II system, but TSA is determined that eventually everyone who buys an airline ticket will be subjected to such a pre-flight background screening system.

Meanwhile, another aspect of air travel security took formal shape at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, GA, on Feb. 25. That’s when Atlanta police began stopping and inspecting vehicles on the busy airport’s access roads, according to The Journal-Constitution.

Initially, every sport utility vehicle, truck and van will be stopped and inspected. Passenger cars, including taxis, would be randomly selected for closer scrutiny.

While each inspection was only expected to take a few minutes, authorities and airlines advised passengers to add an additional hour to their travel plans to provide for traffic backups.

Last year, the TSA dropped police inspections of vehicles entering parking ramps close to airline terminals. The new Atlanta system indicated that the replacement will provide an even wider screening.