Quote Originally Posted by bourbon View Post
I mean in the literal sense, like: we need X amount of qualified personnel, which require Y level of training to be effective, and the number of training cadre available is Z.

How long would it take for Z to train X number of people to the level of Y? Six months, one year, a decade?
I would give each State a year to attain qualified people and each year re-qualify them while qualifying another group, and so on.

How many is enough ? The average is 5 per gate with at least two being instructor qualified. When there's nothing going on, they should be training and when the passengers are piling up, the teams should slow down (the airlines and inspectors are not at fault because the pax are in a rush and thought they could show up 5 minutes before boarding).

We (7 to 8 senior instructors) train on the average 12 people each week at both the harbors and airports. Customs officials are welcome but not required to attend. Because my training days are often Wednesdays I usually see the same 10 to 12 folks. In total this year we have trained over 100 inspectors in 15 different categories (levels if you will) which take into account most of the bad things over the last five years. That's now covered four ports, three border crossings and three airports in as much as 2 to 3 languages with just 7 to 8 people.

The folks that graduated this year are now instructor qualified for CY2011 and will requal this time next year.

Since 2002 we have trained and certified over 750 public and private workers.

In addition, our dog handlers also perform training at the above mentioned locations where EDDs are used. An EDD is trained much like a drug dog and must identify up to eight explosive compounds in order to retain qualification each year. In order to be fair and remain impartial, evaluators cannot be dog handlers.

If someone thinks PETN is not detectable, they are in for a real surprise.

As much as I love watching a German Shepherd go haywire, I really like it when an inspector declares "additional searching is required. Please go with this officer."

In sum, your people, the x-ray and EDDs are all just tools in our kit bag and knowing how and when to employ them is half the battle.