Determining the Optimal Time on X-Ray Analysis for Transportation Security Officers

Abstract

Abstract. The Transportation Security Administration has a large workforce of Transportation Security Officers, most of whom perform interrogation of x-ray images at the passenger checkpoint. To date, TSOs on the x-ray have been limited to a 30-min session at a time, however, it is unclear where this limit originated. The current paper outlines methods for empirically determining if that 30-min duty cycle is optimal and if there are differences between individual TSOs. This work can inform scheduling TSOs at the checkpoint and can also inform whether TSOs should continue to be cross-trained (i.e., performing all 6 checkpoint duties) or whether specialization makes more sense.

The Role of Visual Inspection in the 21st Century

“…Since 2009, my team and I have conducted experiments for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to understand the impact of different factors on Transportation Security Officer (TSO) decision making, primarily at the X-Ray duty station. Over the course of seven studies focused on X-Ray baggage screening, we have collected data from more than 1000 TSOs at 10 different airports (see Speed et al, 2015). We also conducted a detailed review of several decades of empirical work on X-Ray decision making led by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the TSA.…”

Human Factors Within the Transportation Security Administration: Optimizing Performance Through Human Factors Assessments

“…However, this sample should provide a reasonable perspective on TSA's attempt to incorporate data from well-designed studies into their decision-making about procedures, technologies, and training methods. (The reader is referred to two papers in another session of this conference, "Domain General and Domain Specific Expert Visual Search" for descriptions of another current TSA project [1,2].…”