San Jose airport to improve perimeter security

Mineta San Jose International Airport is one of two airports selected to test new perimeter intrusion detection and deterrence technologies, Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, and Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley, announced Tuesday.

The Transportation Security Administration selected the San Jose airport along with Miami International Airport based on an assessment of sites across the country.

The initiative is part of H.R. 1625, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, which allocated up to $10 million for equipment testing as a result of a provision by Swalwell included in the bill.

Swalwell said in a statement:

“Since my time on the Homeland Security Committee during my first term, I’ve known that we absolutely must update our thinking about how we protect airports to keep America safer.”

Recently, San Jose International Airport has been the site of various security breaches most notably in April 2014 when a Santa Clara boy traveled to Hawaii in the wheel well of a plane.

Then, in August 2014, serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman was able to fly from San Jose to Los Angeles without a boarding pass.

As the TSA tests perimeter equipment and technology, it will consider a wide range of technologies including installing, testing, and analyzing video cameras, analytics software, laser, fence, and unattended ground sensors, and radar, microwave, and passive Infra-Red sensors, among others.