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MANAGING AIRPORTS TODAY 38 airportbusiness May 2015 AP Q&A;: PERIMETER SECURITY A YEAR AGO, 15-year-old Yahya Abdi climbed the fence protecting the airport in San Jose, Calif., hoisted himself into a parked plane's wheel well and survived a long, freezing flight to Hawaii. While it was not the first report of a perimeter security breach at a major U.S. airport, there was no easy way to establish how frequently incidents occur. Airports do not like to reveal breaches, and the TSA, which is supposed to catalog them, would not divulge what its records show. So the Associated Press began digging. Many airports fought against releasing these records, but, eventually, a picture emerged. Here are some of the questions and answers about what the AP found. How many times have airport perimeters been breached? Every year, people reach secure areas of the nation's airports by defeating fences, camer- as and remote sensors. Some linger for hours before they're discovered, or reach planes on runways or parked at gates. From Jan. 1, 2004, through Jan. 31, 2015, the AP found 268 perimeter breaches at the nation's 30 busiest airports, as measured by passenger traffic, and the one in San Jose. Because several airports didn't have data going back that far and four refused to release any information, citing security concerns, the total number is surely higher. Four years had more than 30 breaches each: 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2014. The most was 38, in 2014 and 2012; the fewest 12 in 2009. Among the 268 total breaches, just over half involved people who hopped over or wriggled under fences, slipped through gates or past guardhouses, or were found on foot inside a secure area. About one-quar ter involved drivers who smashed into fences or drove through security gates. The rest were incidents for which airports did not provide enough information to determine exactly what happened. Why is it significant? While none of the breaches AP found involved a terrorist plot, people with weapons or a history of violent crimes have been caught. A nightmare scenario haunts airport and other public offi- cials: A terrorist could steal onto a parked plane and plant a bomb. What airports had the most incidents? Seven airports in four states accounted for more than half of the breaches. San Francisco International repor ted 37. Philadelphia International: 25. Los Angeles International: 24. McCarran International in Las Vegas: 21 (though its records check went only to the start of 2009.) Mineta San Jose International: 18. Miami International: 14. And Tampa International: 13. In Los Angeles, one man accounted for eight breaches between April 2012 and March 2013. Four airports declined to provide infor- mation about perimeter breaches. They were Boston Logan International and three run by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey: John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia. What happened to the intruders? At least 140 of the 268 incidents resulted in arrests or citations. AP did not track whether people were prosecuted. Some people — nota- bly lost drivers — were released with no pun- ishment. In other cases, there was not enough information to determine whether the person was punished. —Source: Associated Press swam to shore, and climbed the eight-foot perimeter fence of John F. Kennedy International Airport. He walked across two runways and passed several security cameras and motion detectors before being spotted. PERIMETER SECURITY CHALLENGES There is very little consistency in the way perimeter security is handled. The TSA is responsible for ensuring airport operators adhere to an appro- priate security plan that meets federal standards, but perimeter security is primarily the responsibility of airport operators. Despite implementing activities to assess airport perimeter risks, the TSA failed to conduct perimeter vulnerability assessments for 87 percent of the nation's 450 commercial airports, according to a 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. This exemplifies the lack of attention given to perim- eter security. The sheer amount of space airports occupy poses a significant perim- eter security challenge. For instance, Mineta San Jose International Airport is one of the country's smaller airports, and its perimeter is about five miles long. The perimeters of Los Angeles International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport are approximately 10 and 20 miles long, respectively, while Denver International Airport's perimeter spans more than 29 miles. Combined, the perimeters of all U.S. airports nearly equal the length of the U.S. border with Mexico—a border for which security expenditures approach a billion dollars annually. Most airports don't have an operating perimeter intrusion detection system in place, so airport security and management only find out about a breach after it occurs. There are hundreds of different sensors and systems airports can use to protect the perimeter, but they don't come without challenges. For example, weather and natural elements often prohibit the use of certain sensors without environmental filters due to a high false alarm rate. Some airports use multiple detection methods, but using multiple systems can be problematic because they generally work in isolation. Each sensor can provide some information, but it often fails to provide