After several months of rumors, the USA’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has officially launched TSA Gold+, a new public-private partnership that looks to increase private security screening at airports.
The Gold+ program has been developed in order to enable participating airports to tailor security systems for their facility and avoid the personnel shortages that recently affected airports across the USA during the government shutdown.
TSA says the initiative will pair the Screening Partnership Program (SPP) with TSA’s innovation authorities to enable cutting-edge aviation security solutions. Long-term SPP contracts will redirect funds into the partnerships where industry operators can manage both technology and screening workforce.
While the initiative is expected to save federal funds, critics say it opens up an airport’s most crucial operations to private vendors that may not have the same level of internal security as TSA. However, TSA says Gold+ will enhance security by enabling faster deployment of advanced technologies and that the authority will maintain oversight to ensure all operations “meet or exceed federal security standards”.
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