1. Case Study: Department of Homeland Security’s Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT)
Shannon Joyce
White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
U.S./Colombia RIA and GRP Workshop
Bogota, Colombia
April 11, 2018
Any views expressed here are solely those of the presenter, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Office of Management and Budget or the Executive Office of the President.

2. What Are We Trying to Solve?
The Transportation Security Administration was created after and in response to 9/11.
Congress has charged the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with responsibility for civil aviation security, including combatting the threat posed by al Qaeda and other terrorists. The Administrator of TSA must “assess current and potential threats to the domestic air transportation system” and take “necessary actions to improve domestic air transportation security,” including by providing for “the screening of all passengers and property” before boarding an aircraft to ensure that no passenger is “carrying unlawfully a dangerous weapon, explosive, or other destructive substance.”
Photo source: CC BY-SA 2.5,

3. Technology Provides Possible Solution
Metal detectors have frequent false-positives and not all weapons are made of metal
Pat-downs solve this by telling us if the person has something they are concealing, but they are slow
Congress directed DHS to “give a high priority to developing, testing, improving, and deploying, at airport screening checkpoints, equipment that detects nonmetallic, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons, and explosives.”  

4. Technology Provides Possible Solution
TSA began deploying AIT in 2008 after laboratory and operational testing. Modern imaging:

5. Alternatives Considered by TSA
Walk-through Metal Detector (WTMD) only
AIT as Secondary Screening following WTMD alarm
Pat-down as Secondary Screening following WTMD alarm
Explosive Detection Technology (EDT) as primary, WTMD secondary
AIT as primary, pat-down and/or EDT as secondary

6. Quantified Costs Considered
Training costs for employees
Traveler Delay (opportunity) costs
Utility costs (for both airports and TSA)
Labor costs
Equipment costs
Deliberative staff materials. Subject to further revision. Do not distribute/duplicate.

7. Unquantified Costs Considered
Privacy
Dignity
Discomfort from false alarms
Health Impacts (negligible so not quantified)
Disparate impacts discussion
Deliberative staff materials. Subject to further revision. Do not distribute/duplicate.

8. Benefits?
Deliberative staff materials. Subject to further revision. Do not distribute/duplicate.

9. Shannon Joyce: sjoyce@omb.eop.gov
Questions?
Thank you!
Contact information:
Shannon Joyce:
Not sure about providing contact info. I’m fine to read off either or phone numbers. If there is concern, we could do the main phone line.

10. Deliberative staff materials. Subject to further revision
Deliberative staff materials. Subject to further revision. Do not distribute/duplicate.