Body Search 2015 considers aviation security technology and applications

Intimate body search at airports also takes a psychological toll on the person conducting the search

SourceSecurity.com's European Correspondent, Jeremy Malies gives an account of the Body Search 2015 security conference that was held at Hounslow, London. Along with emphasis on aviation security, the conference also covered an array of safety and commercial applications. Some of the topics outlined in this article include: New techniques in body scanning, the exasperation public face during airport security checks, inflexible protocols followed by the airport security staff and some more. The breadth of coverage in terms of the technology and application sectors at Body Search 2015 made it an interesting conference.

Body Search 2015 security forum

“The Invasion of the Body-Scanners” was the self-deprecating tagline, and Body Search 2015 was the most interesting security forum I’m likely to attend this year. A former Israeli bomb disposal expert argued cogently that mice will outperform humans, dogs and machines in detecting explosives. In a side room, a training company would subject you to a pat-down search and then discuss the best practice for this kind of inspection. Only at such an event could you learn that extroverts conduct the best body checks. Many bookish introverts may excel in training and written examinations, but they often perform miserably in the field.

But the most memorable detail will remain with me every time I begin to feel frustrated while being scrutinised at an airport security checkpoint, and the thought will no doubt help my blood pressure. No matter how demoralising and draining an intimate body search may be for the passenger, it is nothing compared with the psychological toll on the person conducting the search. This is an interesting viewpoint and one that should remind us that airport security personnel are performing a largely thankless task expressly to keep us safe in the skies.

Manual airside security checks

In a talk covering manual airside security checks, Andrew McClumpha dealt with cultural issues against a backdrop of what will always be stressful circumstances. Despite the evolving challenges, with threats changing constantly, airport staff is required to follow inflexible protocol in their stop-and-search activity. When regulations do change, the new protocol seldom appears to have been framed with operational and motivational sustainability in mind. Integration of people, processes and technology requires organisational structures that are “flatter” than standard models, and it is vital that in a mission-critical environment such as airport security, promotion of staff should be based not on longevity of service but fitness to manage and ability to energise a workforce.

Airport security - higher incidence of body searches and greater thoroughness

McClumpha looked ahead to changing European regulations in September that will require a higher incidence of body searches and greater thoroughness. From the perspective of a trade journalist who deals with related disciplines such as CCTV and access control but always pays close attention to security practice when travelling by air, it was fascinating to learn that many elements of airport security are designed not just to expose criminal acts, but to frustrate attempts at reconnaissance by would-be terrorists.

If guest speakers later in the month at IFSEC had shown half the wit of those at Body Search 2015, I would have had a more interesting three days in the lecture theatres at ExCeL. As moderator, Steve Wolff framed many of the sessions with an urbane perspective, notably when reminding the delegates that whatever their role in transport, leisure or custodial security, they will always be governed first by the laws of physics and secondly by the laws of environmental exposure, this being a neat introduction to a discussion of the myths and realities surrounding ionising radiation and the health risks of body-scanning.

Balance between security and inevitable pressures

So what is the tipping point in terms of a balance between the most stringent possible security and the inevitable pressures to run an airport as a commercial transport hub? To what extent did the panel on the second morning of the conference feel (if at all) that the security community needs to ensure that business pressures never take precedence over striving for optimum safety? Should we be “selling” the security case even harder? These were questions posed by Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International and a frequent interviewee in mainstream media, most recently after the Germanwings Flight 9525 French Alps crash also discussed by SourceSecurity.com.

Just as the advent of the suicide bomber (as early as 1881 with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II) changed the security landscape, body-implanted explosives have thrown up new challenges since they cannot be detected by canines. The Body Search 2015 programme gave slots to speakers from companies representing both transmission and backscatter X-ray techniques.

Transmission and backscatter X-ray techniques

Since I could not remember, here is a summary of the two approaches. “Transmission” (also used in medical imaging) passes X-rays through the traveller and collects the information in the form of an image on the other side while “backscatter” (at a lower intensity) does not penetrate or even transmit through the body but relies on rays being bounced off or scattered onto large detectors which create meaningful images. Repeating the frustration felt in this sector by the perceived reluctance of regulators to innovate quickly, Dr Steve Smith (of San Diego-based Tek84, inventors of the “backscatter” X-ray approach) described how implementation in the field took three years. There were significant difficulties in conveying the message that a single usage of the scanner involved a radiation dose 1,000 times lower than what even disinterested parties from other fields agreed was trivial.

This was far too sophisticated a conference for any kind of crude comparisons between the two X-ray approaches. When Konstantin Sosenko of ADANI (a company that develops “transmission” X-ray equipment) took the rostrum, the topic changed completely to cover hiding of scalpel blades about the body in prisons and theft from a diamond mine in Angola whose monthly turnover rose by 30 percent when miners realised that they would be subjected to scanning at the end of a shift.

Ultimate goal - Complete sharing of information?

Breadth of coverage both in terms of technology and application sectors at Body Search 2015 made it easily the most interesting technical conference I have ever attended. Speakers and delegates impressed not only with enthusiasm for their particular fields, but also willingness to exchange information and learn from related disciplines. If, as security professionals, our ultimate goal is complete sharing of information through the Holy Grail of “big data” then the vendors, consultants and end-users at this conference will be in the vanguard.