9.1.2 Two‐stage Multi‐objective Analysis in the Assignment of Federal Air Marshals

Abstract

The United States Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) plays a critical role in ensuring safe travel aboard United States (US) air carriers. Federal Air Marshall agents, who operate out of field offices throughout the US, are assigned to accompany flights in order to deter and respond to hostile acts. In an era of limited resources, the FAMS is interested in optimally locating its field offices and agents to minimize the overall risk to the US air transportation system. This represents a highly constrained and complex optimization problem that resists standard techniques. In this paper, we demonstrate an approach that leverages the value‐focused thinking to model risk and optimize risk mitigation. Our approach uses a novel two‐stage approach to risk analysis that reduces the optimization burden and provides a solution to the FAMS.