Industrial and Systems Engineering and Research Institute for Security and Safety in Transportation University at Buffalo (SUNY), Buffalo NY 14260, USA

Abstract

We study the airport security queuing system for server behavior in response to queue length, and postulate its implications on security. To achieve this objective, an observational study was performed at the security screening process of a US airport. It was found that X-ray screeners (servers) did speed up with queue length for one type of item, laptop computers. Significant correlations between queue length and service time suggested Parkinson's Law as an explanation. Correlation of this finding with available data on speed-accuracy tradeoffs allows us to reach the following conclusion: For airports where laptops computers are carried by a significant number of passengers as carry-on items, our study indicates a likely impact on server performance as measured as by probability of threat detection.