The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is looking at new ways to improve security outside of the secure areas of airports, such as at baggage claim.

Initiatives include a call for airports to establish full-time operations centres to screen airport workers, prepare for emergencies, and coordinate responses when attacks occur, The Hill reported.

The TSA’s Public Areas Security Summit, convened last autumn and attended by travel industry, government, academic, international, and public officials, was intended to “devise a strategy to share information, prevent attacks, and protect infrastructure from emerging threats to public spaces of transportation venues.”

An 11-point plan released this month includes recommendations to increase information-sharing, prevent attacks, and improve public-transportation infrastructure.

Among the report’s other recommendations are conducting background checks and issuing ID cards to workers on the public side of airports in addition to those with access to secure areas; training all airport staff and workers on threat recognition and communication; stepping up emergency drills; and designing new transportation facilities to incorporate enhanced (if unobtrusive) security features in public areas.

The summit was held in response to terrorist attacks aimed at civilians in unsecured areas of Brussels International Airport and Istanbul Ataturk Airport, as well as the shootings in the baggage-claim area of Ft. Lauderdale International Airport in January 2017.

tsa.gov