With terrorist attacks in recent years recognizable by city name — Brussels, Glasgow, Moscow, Paris, and of course, the shooting on October 22, 2014, through the halls of Canada’s parliament in Ottawa — there has been a movement in the port market towards unification of systems and streamlined security processes to achieve a higher level of situational awareness. The idea of situational awareness differs for each port facility and can include a number of things such as access control integrated with video or dual authentication of security incidents, as well as communication and shared data with government, local law enforcement and other organizations. But no matter how an organization gets there, the end result is better data, streamlined operations and a more secure location.
“These last six or seven years have been an evolutional change of thinking. We are all trying to evolve and look at what we call curb-to-cabin security. The challenge is that the threats are moving further and further away from the aircraft,” says James Armstrong, vice president security, emergency management and customer transportation, Ottawa International Airport Authority. “The bubble is growing for us and there has to be a heightened focus and awareness on the entire campus and even beyond the fence line.”