By Jon Harris:
Authorities are trying to find eight of 11 people who passed through an unattended security checkpoint at New York’s JFK International Airport on 20 February 2017, says Joe Pentangelo, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman. Transportation Security Administration officials in Terminal 5 left a security lane open and unmanned, allowing 11 people to walk through without being checked. On top of this incredible security breach, the agency didn’t notify police for two hours, a direct violation of written procedures. Officials blamed the belated notification by the TSA for its inability to find the travelers before they boarded flights. This incident is just one in a host of other blunders plaguing the TSA.
Failing TSA Dog Teams
On a trip I made to Charlotte, North Carolina, my bag was searched by a TSA K9 for explosives. I was travelling with my gear bag that I used to carry tactical gear on my deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Before the trip, I emptied it and repacked it with clothes. While retrieving my bag from baggage claim, I saw a TSA K9 team approach and ask all passengers to step away from their bags so the dog could check them. There had been a report of an unattended bag, so the dog team was called. Since my bag was already on the ground sitting next to me, the dog checked it over first and of course found nothing of interest. The unattended bag was found and deemed safe. Life went on. I thought nothing more of it until I arrived at the hotel and discovered that I had neglected to remove four fully loaded 9mm magazines from the side pocket of the bag. The dog had missed them. Good for me, bad for the dog. To put this in context, in Iraq and Afghanistan, my bomb dogs would find one single bullet buried 8 inches deep. This dog missed 45 rounds in a side pocket.
Dog teams failed 21 times at Los Angeles International Airport, and 10 times at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Teams at Chicago’s O’Hare, Reagan National in D.C., JFK in New York, San Diego and Bradley International in Hartford, Connecticut, all failed 1 in 3 times. At Love Field in Dallas, K9 teams assigned to protect the airport failed 4 out of 14 tests with a failure rate of nearly 30% between Jan. 1, 2013, and June 15, 2015.
Dogs that I handled had to maintain a 95% accuracy rate or face decertification.
An internal investigation by the TSA revealed a 95% failure rate at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints. The tests were conducted by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Red Teams posing as passengers. According to officials briefed on the results of a recent Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints.
Drug Smuggling
Six current and former TSA employees allegedly smuggled multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine while employed as TSA Officers at the San Juan airport. Their full-time responsibilities were to provide security and baggage screening for checked and carry-on luggage. These TSA employees smuggled large quantities of cocaine through the TSA X-Ray machines and onto airplanes without detection.
TSA Misses 73 Workers With Links To Terrorism
DHS testing determined TSA did not identify 73 individuals with ties to terrorism. The report goes on to say TSA had ineffective controls in place for ensuring that aviation workers had lawful status to work in the US and had not committed crimes, disqualifying them from unescorted access to secure airport areas. TSA lacked properly vetting of all credentialed applicants. Further, thousands of records used for vetting workers contained incomplete or inaccurate data.
It is time to replace the TSA. The over-bloated and inefficient agency needs to transfer security to professional contractors who are uniquely aware of the dire consequences of a job not being performed to perfection.
Jon Harris is an OpsLens contributor and former Army NCO, civilian law enforcement officer, and defense contractor with over 30 years in the law enforcement community. He holds a B.S. in Government and Politics and an M.S. in Criminal Justice.
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