They Said It Would Never Happen

Security teams at Los Angeles International Airport are breaking out of their routines and randomizing the things that they do.

Anxious to thwart future terror attacks in the early stages while plotters are casing the airport, LAX security patrols have begun using a new software program called ARMOR, NEWSWEEK has learned, to make the placement of security checkpoints completely unpredictable.

The goal is to make it harder for would-be terrorists to detect patterns in the security routines that they can exploit.

Typical plots start when would-be attackers begin watching their target "18 months to four years prior to an attack" to look for security weaknesses, says James Butts, deputy executive director of law enforcement at Los Angeles World Airports, which runs LAX and other city-owned airports. "Part of it is to look for patterns in the deployment of assets. We're trying to block the surveillance cycle" by making the security patrols appear in unpredictable places at unpredictable times.

In April, I wrote about airport security:

Doesn't routine provide opportunity? Think of every bank heist or prison escape movie you ever saw; doesn't the plan start with an analysis of the guards' routines, looking for security cracks that can be exploited? Wasn't that the first thing the 9/11 plotters did? So why have we settled on a security system that is so heavily dependent on routine? Why don't we put some unpredictability into the system, some complexity, by shaking the routines up? At the very least, why don't we break the routines into sub-routines, and mix and match those at random so there's no telling which security configuration you're going to run into on a given day?

So, after several long years of blogging, we have at last found an instance in which I was both right and ahead of the curve.

Comments

[James A]

If they would just randomly arrest people as they enter the airport, then they would really not have to worry about terrorist threats. :P

[Squidley]

Congratulations on being right and on making a correct prediction! Both happen less often than we would like, and it's a good feeling when it finally does happen.

It's amazing how what we think is common sense is all-too uncommon.