In February 2011, a college student from Saudi Arabia was arrested in Texas for plotting to bomb U.S. targets after trucking company officials alerted authorities about a suspicious chemical they were hired to carry. A few weeks earlier, a Greyhound bus driver in Virginia persuaded a hijacker to let the passengers offload. They notified the police, who were able to defuse the situation and arrest the individual.

These separate incidents had one common thread-the transportation employees had been trained through a federal terrorism and security awareness program known as “First Observer.”
The nationwide program, led by William (Bill) Arrington of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), recruits and trains volunteers from the trucking, school bus and motor coach industries, law enforcement as well as sports stadium personnel, parking lot attendants and other highway transportation professionals to observe, assess and report suspicious activities that might pose a serious public threat. Keep reading →