GSN March 2016 Digital Edition

Border Security/Immigration
New TSA canine training
center opens in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO – The Transportation
Security Administration today
announced the dedication of a new
canine training center at Joint Base
San Antonio-Lackland.
The new facility is designed to
support the mission to provide,
train and certify highly effective
explosives detection canine teams.
The 25,000 square-foot facility has
seven new classrooms and a 100-
seat auditorium and administrative
space, along with a parking lot
and courtyard. The new building is
a partnership among TSA, JBSA-
Lackland and the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, which built the facility
in a little more than a year.
The new $12 million training facility
is “an ideal complement to
the existing training center campus,
where our canines and their handlers
come to learn the skills necessary
to demonstrate proficiency in
four key elements: the canine’s ability
to recognize explosives odors, the
handler’s ability to interpret the canine’s
change of behavior, the handler’s
ability to conduct logical and
systematic searches and the team’s
ability to locate the explosives odor
source,” said TSA Administrator Peter
Neffenger during a ribbon-cutting
ceremony held earlier today to
mark the completion of the facility.
The program outgrew the original
facility, which was located on
base but not adjacent to where the
dogs and handlers train at venues
that replicate real-life scenarios. The
new facility is now across the street
from the field training center and
kennels. The structure will be certified
at the LEED Silver standard
for sustainability set by the Leadership
in Energy and Environmental
Design of the U.S. Green Building
Council. This energy-efficient, water-conserving
building was erected
using green resources and materials
as part of federal leadership in sustainable
construction.
TSA trains and deploys both TSAled
and state and local law enforcement-led
canine teams in support of
day-to-day activities that protect the
transportation domain and provide
a visible deterrent to terrorism. Annually,
TSA trains about 250 canine
teams at JBSA-Lackland to operate
in the aviation, multimodal, mass
transit, and cargo environments.
Federal, state and local law enforcement
officers from across the
46
country travel to San Antonio to
take the 10 - 12 week courses. They
are paired with a canine teammate
and undergo strenuous training.
These very effective, mobile teams
can quickly locate and identify dangerous
materials that may present a
threat to transportation systems.
The classrooms will be used to
conduct sessions on canine health
and wellness care, obedience, search
patterns and techniques, explosives
handling and safety, and myriad
other mission critical topics. Thirteen
indoor venues are located on
the premises that mimic a variety of
transportation sites, such as a cargo
facility, an airport gate, a checkpoint,
a baggage claim area, the interior
of an aircraft, a vehicle parking
lot, a light rail station, a light rail
car, and an air cargo facility.