1,500 Cameras Watch Over the San Francisco International Airport

You know those paranoid people who are always spouting about how "big brother is always watching us?" Well, some of them may be right, at least if they live near the San Francisco International Airport. You see, from the moment you leave the freeway until the moment you board your plane you are being closely monitored by 1,500 video surveillance cameras which are a part of the SFO's new one-of-a-kind surveillance system.

The system is definitely interesting and leaves nothing unwatched. With the SFO's system, two groups of security analysts watch a wall of security monitors, the TSA (in-between pat-downs) watches the checkpoints and SFO security workers watch everything else. According to Kim Dickie, Assistant Deputy Airport Director at SFO, "We are focused overall so if we have an incident anywhere in the airport we really want to be able to have a view of that."

The interesting part is that there are only a handful of airports in the entire world that have a security setup like this. $20 million worth of security cameras are already in use and an additional $1.5 million more is being spent on the new SFO terminal opening in a few months. "We keep adding cameras every month and every day," said SFO security analyst Liam O'Byrne.

That is a lot of money on a security setup and it begs the perennial question of how closely are travelers being being watched? Let's just say that your process of driving into the airport, parking at the curb, going through security and walking to the gate is all monitored. The cameras pick up your every move. Believe it or not, even with 1,500 cameras there are still a few holes in the system. The TSA definitely wants you to know they are watching, but they do not want you to know where they are not.

There are at least 20 visible cameras on your drive through the airport, your walk through security and your trip through the terminal. However, it is also very clear that there are cameras along that route that are not visible since the SFO stated that there are more than 30 cameras that monitor that particular trek through the airport.

The cameras cannot watch every single person at every single moment they are in the airport, but what they can do is go through footage to see if a person who started a fight in the terminal got drunk at one of the airport bars earlier. If somebody accuses a security agent, or anybody for that matter, of stealing or of "inappropriate conduct", then reviewing the footage from the cameras can back up or refute that claim. Even the SFO employees know they are being watched. According to O'Byrne, "Thefts have gone drastically down because we can watch them and employees all know." One thing is for certain, the cameras are expected and security officials believe that they work.

Source: KTVU.com - New Camera System Keeps Watchful Eye Over SFO

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Responsibility for Newark Airport Breach Taken by TSA

Recently in the news we heard about how the Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey was shut down for hours because a man walked the wrong way through a security checkpoint. The unidentified man's actions prompted a security breach which not only shut down Terminal C in the airport for hours but also prompted the rescreening of thousands of passengers.

The discovery about the man was discovered after a passenger in the airport reported to a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer Sunday afternoon that he believed a person had walked through a security checkpoint the wrong way. In a startling discovery, the TSA attempted to confirm the breach via security cameras that they funded which were installed and operated by the Port Authority. The only problem was that though the cameras were on, they were not recording.

New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg (D) reported in a news conference Wednesday that the camera system had been down since December 28th but that statement couldn't be confirmed by a Homeland Security Official. Thankfully the security cameras for Continental Airlines had been on and recording. The tapes confirmed that an Asian male breached security though TSA officers were unable to find him.

With some more alarming news, TSA notified the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey about the breach. However, according to an airport source, the news of the breach did not reach the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey until 80 minuets after the breach occurred. Reports say that the unidentified man walked through the exit on the public side to the secure "sterile" side in the airport.

How the man was able to pass security undetected remains unclear. An official from Homeland Security told CNN that the TSA officer at the post was distracted by a passenger asking for directions or something like that. The guard in question was removed from screening duties after the breach and was put on administrative leave as of Tuesday.

Although TSA was unable to locate the man, a spokesman said "any threat he may have presented was eliminated by rescreening everyone and re-combing the airport to make sure he didn't introduce anything to the environment or hand anything off to anyone."

Due to the breach and the disabled cameras, TSA has volunteered to check the cameras daily to make sure they are working properly. Airport sources said that the TSA "has that system at their workstations. They have the ability to check it. They need to check it and tell the Port Authority if it's not working." TSA is taking full responsibility for the breach and promise to do everything they can to prevent breaches like this from happening in the future. Which is especially crucial at the Newark airport considering it was one of the airports from which the September 11th hijackers departed.

A problem like this security breach may have been easily avoided had the airport had a remote checkup service for their camera system. Camera Security Now has remote DVR/NVR server checkups that will ensure all of your equipment is running like it should.