Below are my ideas for a comprehensive overhaul of the entire security structure of the game. The current structure will not be conducive to increasing sizes of airports and aircraft, and isn’t very realistic. It served its time well.
Components of the new security system. Very similar to the current baggage system in structure/modularity. Same checks for ability to turn on/off one particular security line. Click the bullet point to uncollpse it.
Leadership
- Levels of the head of security turning on new features…
- Level 0 – by default… guy who drew the short stick… no one in particular, but someone’s doing something, right??? Fencing. Lowest quality applicants and even then, very few of them.
- Level 1 – head of security - crappy patrol vehicles, low rating applicants and low number of applicants to choose, lowest tier objects at the check point.
- Level 2 – middle tier everything – vp of security
- Level 3 – all the highest tier stuff available. Chief Security Officer (might even have him carrying around a machine gun for fun). This would only become available as the airport adds more things before… so minimum number of terminals, all baggage security features researched, etc. This would get more complicated because this level of executive influence in an organization creates minimum standards. In other words, you can’t go cheap if you’re paying for someone with this title. There could be consequences if you did… so ignoring them deliberately increases the demand for disaster drills… that would cause airport shut downs in a worse case scenario, but would still happen… planes re-routed, etc. Could even make the disaster simulations not in the CEOS realm of control because of a very passive aggressive CSO… fine… you don’t want to listen to me… lets see how we handle a bomb threat tomorrow morning during the initial round of passenger loading…
Airport perimeter
- The very outside of the map would automatically have fencing around the entire thing. “Fencing” would include guard shacks and walls. The system would check that the physical fencing does not “close”. If it doesn’t close after we interrupt it during construction, it would recognize that and have a simple red or green light on the status bar. This could be turned off or on as one desires. Sometimes worrying about a security alert isn’t needed when you’re rebuilding everything. And actually gets annoying. Physical security… the fence…
- Perimeter checks – would require security vehicles that would require staff and they would have to physically drive the perimeter periodically. They can have the cheap cars or the nice SUVs (which are pointlessly expensive)…
- Roaming officers and patrols… with then tiers of vehicles… walking, golf carts, those silly gyroscope vehicles, Could even have bomb sniffing dog patrols.
Pre-security baggage requirements
- Time required/advertised by airport/governmental entities that a passenger arrive prior to their planned departure. People rarely agree and are perpetually past that requested time (increases the likelihood of late departures or passengers missing their flights.
- If it’s advertised longer for a safety pad, it’ll increase people’s levels of boredom… sure they’re on time, sure the airline is likely to be 100% on time (which is also airline dependent)
- If it’s advertised shorter to try and reduce boredom , it’ll increase the late departures, late single passengers (a joyful experience in this game when the idiots are still in the store and the only one left to board, but a very real feature) and that would also be airline dependent.
- Number of allowed luggage per passenger for carryons… this is supposed to be airline dependent… but if the airline contract states they are all supportive of additional carryon luggage, fine, the baggage scanning process would have to be longer because passengers for that airline would require higher level security, whereas a person/airline without any luggage would be able to bypass the whole luggage scanning belts/stations and roll right into the person scanning device and then roll right on through.
The security Q itself
- an object that is placeable, must be attached to the next object, ID Check or scanning station.
- Sometimes worse than rides at Disney land… one could even have items placed near/around the security Q itself that could include sellable advertising space, features to decrease comfort (sound/music)
- Different Q types… in the USA we have TSA Pre check… some other medium type Q (seems like it’s airline dependent) and then the rest of us… how this differs in its function… the TSA pre check Q can sometimes be longer, but the passengers don’t have to do as much at the security line itself… so it’s a longer Q to a faster security check. The others are just waiting in line for the next ID check and the inevitable shoe removal…
- Number of Qs versus a single Q that leads to the next step
Verifications of Identity*
- Must be attached to a Q, can be attached to multiple Qs, must be attached to a luggage/person scanner.
- The people who check the ID and boarding pass…. Ever get annoyed that there are security people standing around and unmanned ID check points with long Qs… doesn’t really matter if there aren’t any spots past the ID check on the luggage loader anyway…. BUT!!! That does really piss people off when security seems like they’re ignoring the passengers while they’re sitting there “Supervising”…
- Again, some sort of government/airline sponsored ID check stand would move faster than the rest.
Passenger Scanning/Carryon Luggage Scanning Coexistence
- each separately placeable and must be connected at a 1:1 relationship. Maybe a 1 “large” body scanner to two luggage scanners, but I’d say only the really nice ones could achieve that level of capacity.
Showing simple modularity concept
Passenger Scanning
- Simple walk-through scanners (small) – very small foot print, unnecessary to build Qs, but certainly able if you want, much faster, much less "secure", ok for use in the ID pre-check people. Also would need to be staffed by 1-2 people. One always scanning with the wand, the second for assistance with escorting pax to manual check area.
- Circular body scanners (large) - much slower, much more "secure", OK for the rest of us…
- “Total Recall” movie style walking person scanners (super high tech) - Stupidly fast, stupidly expensive, stupidly secure, part of a "futuristic DLC" to the game after launch. This could even be part of an entire “airport of the future DLC/expansion”
Draggable pre-scanner belt rollers
- the length of the belt then comes with the number of people who can stand there… number of bins, carts, and people assigned to bring the bins from the end back to the beginning… if no one does this, there are not bins and security slows… if airports go cheap on the bins, then it’s a slower process overall. means more people standing next to the rollers instead of in the Q of security. "Time spent in security Q" decrease in happiness, restroom, stress, hunger. "Time spent in other places in security Q" - much slower increases to the things stated
Carry on Luggage Scanning
- Luggage Scanning station - "small" - poor quality scans that deliberately increase the time the baggage is physically in the scanner - increases the number of manual checks needed, increases general time in security, which increases all the negatives, has 1 security agent needed. Smaller foot print, also increases security agent fatigue quicker because they’re brains have to work hard looking through poor quality scanning images… they have to go back and forth a couple times, which causes increased back-ups in the pre and post Q belt rollers… also causes back-ups generally because the ID check people aren’t going to send people through to create more people gathered inside the security zone (which has to remain fairly clean so that security can actually monitor people)… substantially increases the need for manual checks, which would also steadily increase as the exhaustion level of the agent increases.
- Luggage Scanning station - "med" - next teir in all categories, only still only requires one agent. Larger foot print, decreases in times back and forth for luggage (probably visually expressed as the time it goes in compared to the time it re-emerges (which is what it basically is in reality) Maybe still has the same fatigue problem… this would really be the middle ground between the two.
- Luggage Scanning Station - "Large" - highest tier, a bit larger physically with a graphic of second screen (maybe even a puff of smoke coming out of it after a scan for entertainment purposes or something), quite a bit larger footprint, which alters the real estate needed, and the number of Qs we would be able to physically put in a given space. would require two security agents, but substantially decreases the need for manual checks, also substantially decreases agent exhaustion because image quality is exceptional…. Would require fewer bins because ipads and laptops and stuff can simply stay in the bags, be scanned and then the people would move along… Very few manual checks, even with high levels of fatigue because the fatigue is physical by sitting in the same place, but not mental because they’re able to confidently make an assessment because the technology makes it happen.
Sort of makes one wonder if there’s actually anything inside it…
Pretty much explains the concept…
Draggable post-scanner belt rollers
Short roller length increases backups as people can’t get to the roller to reclaim their luggage from the roller. Longer rollers mean more people, shorter time spent collecting luggage, decrease in frustration, decrease in wait times etc… BUT all this also messes with the real estate requirement… how much space do we devote to security now in airports… it’s obscene in the US now… airports have been completely redesigning their passenger throughput since 9/11… and it’s not ending well.
Funny thing… create the chance that a passenger forgets something at security and must return… more passengers will forget the less complex the scanners… if we have to take it off and put it on a belt, there’s a chance we’ll forget it… in the US… “would the passenger who forgot their car keys please report back to security” overhead pages are common… (hope they didn’t just board the plane… if they just walked by the boarding agent and realize they’ve forgotten something… do they go all the way back??? Are they allowed???
Manual check area and stations
- Must be a “room” because people cannot enter it unless required
- the station for the security person to do it.
- These would get very person/space intensive if someone chooses to buy the low tier scanning solutions
- if the CEO chooses to go to the bare bones on everything… and only have the quick walk through scanners (like it was before sept 11 attacks in the US) fine… but there ought to be some sort of supposed consequence to that… even if there really wasn’t one that security would have prevented because who doesn’t have a box cutter or a knife before it all. But still… it’s supposed to match reality a bit…
Return to security area to recover forgotten items
- simply a number of staff and an area… with a table or something… hope it’s actually staffed or the agent isn’t on a break…
Closing Thoughts and new necessities
- One complexity, the more complex the airport screening system gets, the more real estate it’s going to require. Many airports in the United States now moving security checks to the first floor with escalators taking passengers up into the airport.
- Ultimately the luggage/person scanner is the central most important piece. It could theoretically be placed by itself and work at the lowest level, but would likely need at least one “ID check” and one Q to be able to be turned on.
- Initial observations of known changes/necessities
- Airline carry-on component in the contracts. Airline security check requirements, higher price per flight paid for higher security provided. Satisfaction must be broken out into separate categories. Security process, ramp process, services available process, and who knows what else. If an airline is really dissatisfied with the security process, the way the complaints would be handled should differ from how they get annoyed by the slow turn around or lack of stuff for their passengers to do while they’re at the airport.
- ID state – precheck, airline cleared, all others.
- Additional PAX luggage fields (may already be there)
- labtops and electronic devices – if they have them and the baggage scanners don’t handle them well… it slows everything down. if they have them (and really who doesn’t now) and the scanners handle them fine… who cares…
- Pax clothing 1,2,3 (simple clothing, easily scanned with a wand) (moderate clothing, requires removal of items, belts, shoes, hoodies) (maybe a third level of like… you know you’re going to have to walk through security, right?) The third tier may even induce a stress response from security… like the woman wearing a coat like outfit that only has skimpy underwear underneath… I think I saw that image on these forums actually… or the one where the person has like 12 layers of nonsense…
Apparently, there’s already math out there for this
Thanks for you time if you got the end of it.