The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can’t effectively measure the effectiveness of its program that attempts to detect suspicious behavior among potential high risk air travelers for additional screening, a Department of Homeland Security watchdog agency says in a report released yesterday.
The Office of the Inspector General says that the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) lacks a strategic plan to identify the missions and goals needed to develop performance measures of the Behavior Detection Officers (BDO).
“TSA cannot demonstrate that BDOs are screening passengers in a uniform manner to identify potential high-risk individuals,” says the report, Transportation Security Administration’s Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (OIG-13-91).
Since the SPOT program began in 2007, TSA has spent $878 million on the SPOT program, which includes more than 2,800 BDOs at 176 airports in the United States. The report says that between Oct. 2011 and Sept. 2012, 199 arrests were made as a result of 37,370 referrals by BDOs for additional screening. The IG also says that an estimated 657 million passengers travelled through the nation’s airports during that period.
The IG report follows an earlier report by the Government Accountability Office that said that TSA’s behavior detection program lacks scientific validity.
The IG report was requested by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, who is critical of the SPOT program.
“After five year, approximately one billion dollars spent, a history of racial profiling allegations, and a lack of measurable results, this report makes it clear that the SPOT program has not improved aviation security and has wasted taxpayer dollars that could have been spent on proven safety measures,” Thompson said in a statement yesterday. “This is why I will be offering an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill this week to prevent any more taxpayer dollars from being spent on this failed and misguided effort.”