Photo: An internal DHS investigation has revealed major security failures at dozens of airports across the country. Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security
An internal Department of Homeland Security investigation has resulted in a scathing report detailing major and consistent lapses in security at dozens of airports across the country.
First reported by ABC News, undercover DHS “Red Team” investigators were able to smuggle banned items and fake bombs through Transportation Security Administration screening checkpoints in nearly 96 percent of their trial runs.
On Monday, as a result of the Inspector General’s report, Acting TSA Administration Melvin Carraway was reassigned to serve in the Office of State and Local Law Enforcement at DHS headquarters. Acting Deputy Director Mark Hatfield will lead TSA until a new acting administrator is appointed, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said.
Later on Monday, Johnson indicated that the agency was taking the Red Team findings “very seriously,” and outlined some actions that DHS has already begun to implement, including re-testing and re-evaluating all screening equipment; directing TSA leadership to revise its standard operating procedures for screening to address the specific vulnerabilities identified by the Inspector General’s testing; and directing TSA to conduct training for all officers, in a phased fashion, in airports across the country, and intensive training for all supervisory personnel to address the specific vulnerabilities identified by the IG’s testing.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week penned a letter to DHS Inspector General John Roth, urging him to conduct a review of TSA employee training procedures as well as equipment testing procedures to determine how both of those systems can be improved.
“The fact that agents were able to sneak dangerous items—be it guns or mock explosives through airport security lines is not just a problem,” Schumer said, “it is an unacceptable vulnerability that needs to be immediately addressed.”
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