After investigators found Transportation Security Administration screeners failed to spot prohibited items at least 70 percent of the time at airport checkpoints, new TSA Administrator David Pekoske is defending his agency’s workforce, saying they do “an excellent job overall.”
Homeland Security investigators found undercover officers were able to get through TSA checkpoints with mock knives, guns and explosives.
“What we do is whenever we have a covert test like the inspector general conducted, and we do our own testing as well, we use that to test our system and see where there are vulnerabilities. What we’re doing right now and we’ve been doing over the past several weeks in fact into the summer is additional training for our transportation security officer workforce who I think it does an excellent job overall,” Pekoske said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.”
TSA Administrator David Pekoske
CBS News
The system is in for a busy weekend as AAA expects 50.9 million travelers to hit the roads, rails and sky for Thanksgiving journeys of at least 50 miles. Pekoske assured travelers that the TSA works closely with transportation companies like Amtrak to share intelligence information and best practices.
“You’ll see as you travel on transportation systems over this weekend an increased presence of law enforcement, of K9 teams, and that’s part of the enhanced security posture in those systems,” Pekoske said.
Pekoske, a former U.S. Coast Guard vice commandant, offered assurances that the TSA is further training its officers and updating procedures.
“Right now when you go to the airport, most airports, you’ll have to take out of your carry-on bags any electronic device that’s bigger than a cellphone and put that into a bin, and what that does, that procedure allows our X-ray examiners to have a clear image when your carry-on bag goes through the X-ray machine,” Pekoske said. “Additionally we have new lanes in many airports, thanks to the airports and the airlines’ partnership with us, and these new lanes allow five people at the same time to put their carry-on bags into bins, which should eventually speed up the process, and also provides some security enhancements for us on the security side of those lanes.”
He said travelers will “see an immediate improvement in security.”
“Additionally we’re focused very hard and I’ve accelerated significantly our investigation of new technology at the check points,” Pekoske said.
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