Sharing information technology at airports.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Security Beat

Three elements of the emerging Homeland Security Department--the Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Customs Service--are cooperating on a plan to share information technology networks at more than 100 airports nationwide.

The TSA, which in November achieved a congressionally mandated deadline to take over security at U.S. commercial airports, needs improved IT services to do its job, Steven I. Cooper, a president assistant for homeland security, told a recent conference.

With 44,000 new employees on the job, desk phones, cell phones, computers and pagers are in short supply at TSA, he said. The problem, however, is that INS, Customs and other federal agencies already have installed networks at the airports that would be...