Risk-Based Policies for Airport Security Checkpoint Screening

Laura A. McLay (), Adrian J. Lee () and Sheldon H. Jacobson ()
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Laura A. McLay: Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284
Adrian J. Lee: Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Sheldon H. Jacobson: Simulation and Optimization Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Transportation Science, 2010, vol. 44, issue 3, 333-349

Abstract: Passenger screening is an important component of aviation security that incorporates real-time passenger screening strategies designed to maximize effectiveness in identifying potential terrorist attacks. This paper identifies a methodology that can be used to sequentially and optimally assign passengers to aviation security resources. An automated prescreening system determines passengers' perceived risk levels, which become known as passengers check in. The levels are available for determining security class assignments sequentially as passengers enter security screening. A passenger is then assigned to one of several available security classes, each of which corresponds to a particular set of screening devices. The objective is to use the passengers' perceived risk levels to determine the optimal policy for passenger screening assignments that maximize the expected total security, subject to capacity and assignment constraints. The sequential passenger assignment problem is formulated as a Markov decision process, and an optimal policy is found using dynamic programming. The general result from the sequential stochastic assignment problem is adapted to provide a heuristic for assigning passengers to security classes in real time. A condition is provided under which this heuristic yields the optimal policy. The model is illustrated with an example that incorporates data extracted from the Official Airline Guide (Official Airline Guide. 1998. OAG Business Travel Planner: North American Edition . Official Airline Guides, Bedfordshire, UK).

Keywords: aviation security; Markov decision processes; sequential assignment problem; dynamic programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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