Homeland Security Tips

Homeland Security Tips

Storage Units

There are a list of activities related to storage facilities that are considered suspicious. If something seems wrong, notify law enforcement authorities. Do not jeopardize your safety or the safety of others. Activities considered suspicious include:

  • Failing to provide complete personal information when completing rental paperwork.
  • Inquiring about security and surveillance equipment utilized at the storage facility.
  • Placing unusual items in storage units or facility dumpsters including fertilizer or agricultural products, chemicals or chemical containers, fuel containers, weapons and ammunition, and explosives.
  • Disposing of tools or protective gloves, masks, or clothing, especially items in new condition.
  • Entering and leaving the storage facility at unusual times or accessing the facility an unusal amount of items.
  • Avoiding contact with rental facility personnel.
  • Requesting deliveries of chemicals and other items made directly to a storage
    unit.
  • Leaving burn marks or discoloration on the walls or door of a storage unit. Storing items that emit unusual odors or leak liquids.

Know your customers.

  • Require valid ID from all new customers.
  • Talk to customers, ask questions, and listen to their responses. Watch for people and actions that are out of place. Make note of suspicous statements, people, and/or vehicles.

Learn more here (external link).

Hotels

There are a list of activities related to hotels and motels that are considered suspicious. If something seems wrong, notify law enforcement authorities. Do not jeopardize your safety or the safety of others. Activities considered suspicious include:

  • Using cash for large transactions or a credit card in someone else's name.
  • Making unusual inquires about local sites, including governement, military, law enforcement, communications, and power facilities.
  • Refusing cleaning service over an extended period of time.
  • Leaving the property for several days and then returning.
  • Reports of guest rooms with burn marks or discoloration on the walls or door, unusal odor or liquids seeping from a room, or unusal amounts of traffic to the room.
  • Discovery of unusal items in guest rooms or facility dumpsters like fertilizer or agricultural products, chemicals or chemical containers, fuel containers, weapons and ammunition, explosivies, extremist training manuals or literature, and fraudulent credit cards or documents.

Know your customers.

  • Talk to customers, ask questions, and listen to their responses. Watch for people and actions that are out of place. Make note of suspicous statements, people, and/or vehicles.
  • Report vehicles abandones on the property to law enforcement authorities.

Learn more here (external site).

 

Rental Cars

There are a list of activities related to rental vehicles that are considered suspicious. If something seems wrong, notify law enforcement authorities. Do not jeopardize your safety or the safety of others. Activities considered suspicious include:

  • Reluctance to provide complete personal information when completing rental paperwork.
  • Inability to recall the name used to rent a vehicles or providing multiple names on rental paperwork.
  • Returned vehicles that contain unusual burn marks or odors, blueprints or photographs of buildings and landmarks, extremist training manuals or literature, surveillance equipment, receipts for hazardous items, weapons.
  • Unusual questions regarding a vehicle's dimensions or fuel capacity or questions regarding local government, military, law enforcement, communications, and power facilities.
  • Reports of abandoned rental vehicles near military bases, government buildings, power plants, shopping malls, hotels/ resorts, stadiums, or schools.

Know your customers.

  • Talk to customers, ask questions, and listen to their responses. Watch for people and actions that are out of place. Make note of suspicous statements, people, and/or vehicles.

Learn more here (external site).

 

Airports

There are a list of activities related to airports that are considered suspicious. If something seems wrong, notify law enforcement authorities. Do not jeopardize your safety or the safety of others. Activities considered suspicious include:

  • Individuals taking flying lessons that are uninterested in learning all that is necessary to pilot an aircraft safely.
  • Attempts to obtainf lying lessors or rent a plane without proper identififcation. Rental inquiries for questionable or vague reasons.
  • Requests to be flown through restricted airspace or over specific potentially sensitive locations, such as bridge, dams, and schools for unsubstantiated reasons.
  • Individuals who appear more interested in photographing/documenting airport security procedures and safeguards than airplanes.
  • Inquires about buying aviation fuel in containers as opposed to dispensing it into an airplane or attempts to load fuel inot a passenger compartment of an aircraft.
  • Evidence of attempted breaches of airport perimeter security such as holes in fences.
  • Individuals whose actions/behaviors are outside the norm and raise your suspicions based on your experience.
  • Vehicles parked near an airport perimeter fence, especially for an extended period of time.
  • Attempts to leave or enter aiport buildings through outlets not designed for public access like emergency exits and employee doors.
  • Airport exmployees found in areas not permitted by their credentials.
  • Requests for information about airport security procedures, staffing, or equipment.
  • Non-U.S. citizen applying for flight training with an expired visa or without the required M-1 vocational visa.

What You Can Do:

  • Report suspicious activity to the General Aviation Hotline at 866-GA-SECURE or 866-427-3287.
  • Establish a contact such as the airport manager for easy reporting of suspicious activity.
  • Restrict entry to specific aiport facilities.
  • Ensure all flight school employees complete Flight School Security Awareness (FSSA) training every year.
  • Work with local law enforcement to ensure that the airport perimeter is patrolled.
  • Install security cameras at all entrances and exits to airport buildings.
  • Make not of suspicious statements, people, and/or vehicles.

Learn more here (external site).