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TSA defends its handling of security breaches
The Transportation Security Administration is defending its safety record after a report released this week contended that the agency had not properly responded to cases of airport security breaches.
The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general released at report commissioned at the request of New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) this week that showed that TSA only responded to 42 percent of the security breaches that were reported between January 2010 and May 2011 at Newark International Airport.
TSA spokesman Kawika Riley said in the same period, TSA screened thousands of airport passengers.
"Last year, TSA’s workforce screened more than 603 million passengers at 450 airports across the country and stopped more than 125,000 prohibited items at airport checkpoints," Riley said in a statement that was provided to The Hill. "Of those items, more than 1,300 were firearms."
"As part of its multi-layered, risk-based approach to airport security, TSA recently began testing travel document authentication technologies, which automatically and concurrently verify passenger boarding passes and IDs in order to make travel safer for all travelers," he said. "Also, the use of Secure Identification Display Area (SIDA) badges helps prevent unauthorized individuals from entering the sterile and secured areas of the airport. The authorization is done in cooperation with the airport operators."
Sen. Lautenberg, who is vice chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, said on Monday the report however "identifies a gaping hole in our airport security system and gives us a framework for how to improve security at Newark Liberty Airport and all across the country."
Lautenberg added that it was important for TSA to take all security breaches seriously.
"The recent attempt by al Qaeda to take down a U.S.-bound airliner showed us that terrorists are still determined to exploit aviation security gaps in order to attack America," he said.
But Riley said TSA was already working to implement the recommendations of the inspector general's report, including creating a uniform definition of what constitutes a security breach.
"TSA is coordinating appropriate revisions to relevant operations directives to develop a single definition of 'Security Breach,' addressing an OIG recommendation," he said.
"TSA is also updating its airport performance metrics to track security breaches and airport checkpoint closures at the national, regional and local levels, addressing an OIG recommendation," he continued.
