As administrator of the 50,000-employee agency, Hawley is implementing changes ranging from new uniforms to new technology to improve the effectiveness of the agency in detecting potential terrorists. At the same time Hawley wants to make the screening experience less trying for travelers.

In a program the nearly 7-year-old agency calls “Checkpoint Evolution,” Hawley and his lieutenants are changing the way airport security works. At Sea-Tac Airport, the TSA has already installed what it calls its Black Diamond program, which separates travelers into different lines based on their familiarity with security screening procedures. Frequent fliers move to the black diamond lines while novice travelers move to slower paced queues where they’ll have more time to ask questions and ready themselves for security screening.

Hawley was recently at Sea-Tac to talk with local TSA officers and airport officials about the program’s evolution.

He chatted with The News Tribune about how he sees the checkpoint experience changing:

What’s the basis for the new system?

It’s about increasing the calmness. If I yell out, “OK, everybody get your bags out. Take your shoes off,” then you’re increasing the level of tension. So cut out that. Talk to people. Engage with them. If you have a more confident presence, it works. The black diamond lanes like you have here have already calmed down the checkpoints. You have happier passengers. You have happier officers. We’ve actually improved our officers’ attendance at airports where we have the black diamond lanes.

What other adjustments are you making to the security screening process?

We’re trying to get away from the rigid, rule-based program to one that is flexible and that is most effective against an enemy like al-Qaida. Of necessity we have a rule-based system. But rules never cover all the possibilities. So what we don’t want to happen is that our employees turn off their brains to remember what the rules are because if you have an enemy who keeps changing their tactics based on what we do, we will not be successful.

Every officer at the checkpoint comes into contact with hundreds or thousands of people every day. And if all we’re doing is just a mechanical look in the bag, then we’re missing all the subtle cues that a sophisticated terrorist manifests. This is a software upgrade for the workforce.

Will the experience be different for airplane passengers?

Here’s how it will look to you. It will be calmer. It will be less noisy at the checkpoints. There will be less yelling. What we’ve found is that if you have officers walking up through the checkpoint line chatting with customers – “How are you doing? Aren’t the Bears doing great?” – it tends to loosen people up. If you’re going through talking to people, you may notice that there is somebody who is starting to drift away and not make the eye contact. Those are things that we miss today. We can single that person out for further screening.

That’s the human side. Will the technology evolve as well?

We just announced new Advanced Technology X-rays. It will be a massive deployment. That’s a very significant upgrade from the X-ray we have now. On the physical side, it’s at least two energy sources. Right now we have a dumb X-ray that shoots down on the bag, and you get what you see there. This has a second X-ray source, so you get a another view. Another benefit is that the software that goes with it is programmable and upgradable.

Will the rule requiring passengers to remove their shoes for X-ray inspection ever go away?

There’s a new machine that we’re just rolling out to do some testing on. We’ll see. I’d say it’s at least a year away. Clearly it would be the happiest moment in my life when we don’t have to ask people to take off their shoes.

Is there any relief for laptop users who now must remove their computers from their bags for inspection?

The Advanced Technology X-ray with some improvements will allow you to keep your laptops in your bag. We’re not there today. However, we put out an announcement to bag manufacturers and said if you can make a bag where the laptop is not covered with clutter, and looks the same on the X-ray as a laptop in a bin, we’ll let you keep the laptop in the bag. We had 60 companies respond. They said, “Yes, we can do it.” We had some of them bring their bags into our airports and try them out with our officers, and they worked. I believe there will be bags available this fall.

John Gillie: 253-597-8663

blogs.thenewstribune.com/business

Founded: November 2001

Employees: 50,000

Administrator: Kip Hawley

Career: Hawley joined TSA in 2001 and was appointed administrator in 2005. Previously he worked for private transportation and technology companies Arzoon, Skyway and Union Pacific. He also worked for the federal government in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.