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TSA launches 'PreCheck' program at Newark Airport
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is expanding its "PreCheck" known-traveler program to Newark, N.J.'s Liberty International Airport.
Security at Newark Airport has been under intense scrutiny from lawmakers after a series of breaches gave at least one New Jersey lawmaker, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), a feeling of "déjà vu."
But in a blog post on its website this week, TSA said it was expanding the PreCheck program, which is part of the agency's move to "risk-based" security techniques, to the beleaguered New Jersey airport.
The expansion will allow passengers flying through Newark on United Airlines to possibly "keep their shoes and belts on, and keep their laptops in their bags," TSA's blogger Bob Burns wrote.
TSA has reportedly tried to reassure lawmakers that it has addressed the issues that caused the security breaches at Newark airport. The airport was shut down for three hours last month after a passenger was allowed to pass to through a security checkpoint without being screened.
TSA Administrator John Pistole penned a memo to members of Congress this week telling them that "substantial improvements" have been made at Newark's security checkpoints since then, according to a report from New York City television station WNYW.
"EWR has improved and streamlined its processes in regard to remedial training and discipline of individuals involved in security incidents," Pistole wrote according to the station.
TSA has touted PreCheck as part of a larger aware from one-sized-fits-all security measures that have come under fire like pat-downs and X-ray machines, although the agency is not completely doing away with either method.
The PreCheck program allows passengers to volunteer information to the agency in exchange for the possibility of receiving expedited screening. TSA has been testing the program at nearly 30 airports since last year.
