ATA supports formation of terrorist warning system

ATA president & CEO William Canary id he endorses the Bush administration's plans to develop a terrorist warning system for the United States. Director of homeland security Tom Ridge unveiled the Terrorist Information and Prevention System (TIPS) yesterday, which break up warnings of terrorist threats into five distinct levels from low to severe. Canary said that the ATA supports turning TIPS into

Sean Kilcarr

March 13, 2002

ATA president & CEO William Canary id he endorses the Bush administration's plans to develop a terrorist warning system for the United States.

Director of homeland security Tom Ridge unveiled the Terrorist Information and Prevention System (TIPS) yesterday, which break up warnings of terrorist threats into five distinct levels from low to severe. Canary said that the ATA supports turning TIPS into reality and hopes to connect several ATA programs to the TIPS network.

Those ATA programs include Highway Watch, developed in 1998 with FMCSA. The program trains professional truck drivers to recognize and report to designated state law enforcement agencies both emergency situations and suspicious activity.

"We believe the Highway Watch program can be easily and efficiently transformed in a rapid manner to a security program within TIPS," Canary wrote in a letter to Ridge. "Enlisting America's 3.1 million professional truck drivers nationwide to serve as the eyes and ears adjunct to law enforcement would have a tremendous impact on efforts to prevent terrorist attacks at home."

About the Author

Sean Kilcarr

Editor in Chief

Sean Kilcarr is a former longtime FleetOwner senior editor who wrote for the publication from 2000 to 2018. He served as editor-in-chief from 2017 to 2018.