Security not provided in the airport entrance?

Airports nowadays have a very good level of security. Security efforts have been stepped up all over the world after several terrorist attacks in check-in areas of many airports.

For decades, security checkpoints have been in place for people wishing to access the plane and gate areas of airports. An additional layer of security was added after several attacks, when general access was further restricted only to passengers able to show boarding passes for a flight.

But it’s the areas before security,  such as check-in areas or even the security lines themselves  that have been mentioned as “soft targets” that could be attractive targets for terrorists. That has led some to wonder about whether airport security should be further extended to the entrance of the airports themselves. The idea also was floated in late 2013 after a gunman killed a Transportation Security Administration officer in a pre-security area at Los Angeles International Airport.

“That question always comes up at airports when there is an incident like this,” says Jeff Price, a travel-security expert and author who is an associate professor at Metro State University in Denver.

But Price says that doesn’t necessarily alleviate the threat and could actually raise new vulnerabilities. “The problem is, you’re just relocating the place the attack will occur,” he says. The point of a suicide bombing is to detonate in an area where there are a lot of people, so relocating the place where people gather just relocates where the bomber will go. And if the security perimeter expands to the drop-off curb, Price says that may make crowds more susceptible to vehicle bombing. The benefit of an airport like LAX is that the terminals are all spread out so you don’t have everyone collected in one location.

Intelligence is a crucial part of the anti-terror effort, there is a need to detect plots before attackers arrive at the airport or train station. They can just leave the bomb where the passengers are lined up. That’s why intelligence is important, to stop them before they get there. The best thing that can be done to deter this type of attack is to deploy uniformed law enforcement who act as both deterrents and can identify suspicious behavior. The bomber does not want to get caught before getting to their target and, while in some cases the target may actually be police, usually the bomber will go to where they are less likely to be spotted.