FIRST TAKE THE SECURITY OF FIRST OBSERVER WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY L
ast year at about this time, we reported on the faltering health of the First Observer pro- gram, which aims to provide school bus and other commercial drivers with training on how and when to report suspicious activities they witness when on the road. After hitting some bumps in the road last year and pressing the restart button program
managers say it’s nearly time to kick the tires on a next-generation solution: First Observer 2.0. Te program, which has undergone several name changes over the years, has certainly had its share of supporters but also detractors since it started 11 years ago in response to lessons learned after the 9/11 attacks. It started as Highway Watch with a sister program soon developing specifically for stu- dent transporters, aptly named School Bus Watch. TSA originally contracted the American Trucking Associations (ATA) to administer the training. For the next four years or so, ATA received $63 million in federal funds to build the program and
to start collaboration with industry stakeholders, like those in the school bus industry. But the first real momentum started several years ago, when under a new contract the renamed First Observer program engaged the student transportation industry to help build training modules. But then program hit the skids after Tanksgiving 2012, when funding was cut off to TSA con-
tractor HSM Company. Te program went offline, both figuratively and literally. Training courses were cancelled and the website was taken, but a toll-free hotline to the Highway Information Sharing and Analysis Center remained active for receiving and processing tips, which are passed on to local law enforcement as needed. Still, it felt like any momentum the industry had witnessed over the years had come to a halt. Ten, in March, TSA announced that it had brought First Observer in-house and was transition- ing to a web-only training module. A lot of the information was simply outdated. One of the main issues, TSA discovered, was that online training is not the method of choice for many student trans- porters. Much preferred is in-person training, such as in-services and the previous iteration of First Observer train-the-trainer seminars. An about face was in order. But, as of Christmas there was still no website, aside from an information page on
TSA.gov. Much
like everything else happening in Washington, D.C., First Observer became stuck in a bureaucratic morass.
Te issues partially arose, I was told by senior TSA officials, when attempting to bring the site into
compliance with federal Internet security guidelines. A new contractor was also added to the equa- tion, and a new direction was embarked upon, complete with new staff members. Te very ones who helped give birth to First Observer were moved off the project. At the NAPT Summit in October, William Arrington, GM of TSA’s Office of Highway and Motor Carrier, bemoaned this fact, adding that, to date, no deliverables had been received from the contractor. But he also committed himself to making sure First Observer bounced back. Te mountain share of work so far has been updating existing security training videos and adding
new content and updating the aesthetics of the First Observer web site. I was told at least two new videos and the site along with new educational software should be ready by mid-month, and around that time TSA was going to start engaging industry stakeholders to again participate in focus groups to dictate the direction going forward. Steve Sprague, who helped launch the original Highway Watch and who helped manage the previous
First Observer contract, is back on the case, which is a win for the school bus industry. He told me last month that First Observer is once again alive and viable. It’s just that it went into “hibernation.” “I feel like my kid went out on a gambling kick,” Sprague confided. “But the kids is back in the house now, and I really do have strong confidence.”
10 School Transportation News January 2014
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