The Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at NDSU has launched a transportation security blog to serve as a go-to source for past and current links to videos, news articles and publications on topics related to transportation security issues both domestically and internationally.

The blog is moderated by the institute’s associate research fellow Jarrett Brachman and research associate NeTia Richards, and can be found at http://security.ugpti.org/. Posts to the blog also are linked via FaceBook and Twitter.

“There is a lot of ‘noise’ in the blogosphere, with individuals clouding issues with agendas and opinions,” Brachman said. “What was lacking, particularly related to transportation security, was a single succinct source that brings together a wide variety of factual reporting and scholarly work on key issues. That’s the void we’re filling.”

Recent posts have focused on transit impacts of hurricane Irene and the East Coast earthquake. Other topics include changes to air cargo screenings, arrests in a fake bomb incident in Arizona, real-time video monitoring on transit buses and potential impacts of budget reductions on transportation security. Each post contains a link to source material highlights several key analysis points as “Takeaways.”

Another recent post linked to a review of the Mass Transit Security Monograph produced by the 9/10/11 Project: Are We Ready for the Day Before Tomorrow? The review was written by Richards and published by Mass Transit Magazine’s online security newsletter.  The review can be found at http://o.masstransitmag.com/interactive/category/transit-security/. The 9/10/11 Project’s original monograph is located at http://homelandcouncil.org/pdfs/digital_library_pdfs/hsdbc91011projectmasstransitsecurity.pdf.