Hello [firstname],
FFDO Stakeholder Meeting
3-29-24
Atlanta Recurrent Training Facility
Atlanta, GA
FFDOA leadership participated in the quarterly stakeholder meeting in March. The meeting was held in the new Recurrent Training Program (RTP) facility in Atlanta, GA. The stakeholders were given a tour of the new facility which currently accommodates one (1) class per week with 12 FFDOs per class. With the newly announced FY24 budget, the Program Office is optimistic in proceeding with the ATL RTP buildout. A full buildout will bring ATL to 100% operation of two (2) classes per week with 24 FFDOs per class. The funding increase is needed to support the build out of the needed RTP space, as well as to support the needed contracts for instructors, lodging, role players, transportation, etc. More information will be provided as the Program Office re-engages with the real estate branch to move the project forward.
This expansion is something we have been advocating for and would be a welcome addition to give FFDOs more options to complete their mandatory training requirements.
FFDO mission count for FY24 is on track to exceed FY23 numbers. FFDOs have completed more than 22 million missions since program inception. This is a remarkable number and indicative of the FFDOs sacrifice and service to our nation.
The budget for the FFDO program remains a hot topic item for the stakeholders. Needless to say, money is tight within the FFDO program and every dollar counts. We are engaging our collective government affairs teams to push Congress to increase FFDO funding to allow the program to not only survive but grow.
The program has secured just over 1000 initial training slots for FY24 and trained around 300 to date. However, the backlog of cleared applicants remains high, so it is taking months to get into a training class. A properly funded FFDO program, which is easily the most efficient layer of aviation security we have in our nation, would be able to expand as the applications expand. This is one of the reasons we are fully supporting the program’s proposal to move initial training to the FAMS Training Center in Atlantic City, NJ (ACY) (which is a TSA facility not FLETC) to give the program more options and flexibility to meet training requirements.
FIREARMS REFRESH! If you have not completed the firearms refresh (Glock 19 issuance) the cutoff date is 04-30-24. The program emphasized to us again that there will be NO EXTENSIONS granted.
The Program Office briefed the Stakeholders on the steep increase of FFDO incidents and SOP violations that have occurred in CY2024. As a reminder, FFDOs need to ensure they are checking, double checking, and triple checking that they have all of their TSA issued equipment (specifically, firearm, magazines, and credentials). Additionally, INTERNATIONAL violations are occurring at an alarming rate. These incidents have a direct impact on all FFDOs being able to complete international missions in the future, as well as an overall impact to the FFDO Program. FFDOs must ensure that they are not in possession of any equipment prior to departing for an unauthorized international destination. This is imperative for the FFDO and Program success. International incidents pose the biggest liability to each of us, and have a real and direct impact on accomplishing International expansion.
We are excited to announce that the initial Senior FFDO Program prototype class has been approved. This program will give certain FFDOs who qualify advanced training to include firearms, low light, tactical medical, behavior recognition and joint FFDO / FAMS interaction. We will be communicating more about the Senior FFDO program as it develops. Senior FFDOs will receive a new credential, but their authority or jurisdiction will not change.
Other FFDO initiatives include the continued expansion of ATL RTP, moving initial training to ACY, International expansion and harmonization and an eventual west coast RTP site.
LASTLY!
FFDOA is an all-volunteer Association. All of our leadership team, support folks, IT team, Government Affairs work on their own spare time to forward and support FFDOs.
As the President of FFDOA, I am humbly asking all FFDOA members to help us grow the Association. Like many other entities, we lost a certain percentage of members through the Covid crisis, and we have been slow to rebuild those numbers. Our best “advertising” is word of mouth, so if you fly with or see another FFDO in the field, please mention FFDOA!
Thank you all!
Semper Vigilans!
Bill Cason
President
FFDOA
