TSA to conduct "voluntary" interrogations of truck and bus operators across the country and collect their information.
TSA is planning the beef up some of its existing security assessment programs for highway-related truck and bus operators -- as well as public and private bridge and tunnel owners -- by making approximately 750 face-to-face “voluntary” visits to such transportation organizations each year to review their current security programs and suggest best practices they might adopt.
TSA currently conducts what it calls “Corporate Security Reviews,” or CRSs, with some of these highway-related organizations. “These CSRs have served to evaluate and collect physical and operational preparedness information, critical assets and key point-of-contact lists, review emergency procedures and domain awareness training, and provide an opportunity to share industry best practices,” explains a Federal Register notice published by the agency on May 29.
TSA is now planning to consolidate this CSR program into a broader initiative it calls its Baseline Assessment for Security Enhancement, or BASE, which will also cover transit systems across the country.
“Highway BASE program will continue to be a voluntary, instructive, and interactive review used by TSA to assess the adequacy of security measures related to highway transportation -- such as trucking, school bus, and motorcoach industries, privately-owned highway assets that may include bridges and tunnels, and other related systems and assets owned and operated by state departments of education and transportation,” the notice adds.
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/26449
TSA corporate security reviews
CSRs are conducted with organizations engaged in transportation by motor vehicle and those that maintain or operate key physical assets within the highway transportation community. They serve to evaluate and collect physical and operational preparedness information, critical assets and key point-of-contact lists, review emergency procedures and domain awareness training, and provide an opportunity to share industry best practices.
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/tsnm/highway/programs.shtm
School Transportation Security Awareness (STSA)
The "School Transportation Security Awareness" (STSA) program has been developed by the Transportation Security Administration's Highway and Motor Carrier Security Division in conjunction with the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS), the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT), and the National School Transportation Association (NSTA) to provide much needed security awareness information and training to the school transportation industry. STSA focuses on terrorist and criminal threats to school buses, bus passengers, and destination facilities. It is designed to provide school bus drivers, administrators, and staff members with information that will enable them to effectively identify and report perceived security threats, as well as the skills to appropriately react and respond to a security incident should it occur.
The STSA program consists of a 24-minute DVD of a simulated school bus hijacking and web-based self-study modules offered in both English and Spanish. The program has been designed so that the information can be obtained in a classroom setting or by individual self-guided study on-line. Once registration has been completed, an ID code is assigned, and each member of the registered district/ organization is then able to access the on-line training at any time.
STSA topics include:
Terrorism Defined
Who Are Terrorists?
Define And Identify A Security Threat
Define And Identify A Security Incident
Potential Weapons And The Probability Of Use
Joint Planning Between Organizations
Leadership Begins At The Top