WASHINGTON (TVR) – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in charge of passenger screening at nearly all commercial U.S. airports, has little evidence to justify its behavior detection patrols and activities, a blunt, non-partisan government watchdog has found.

The 16-page Government Accountability Office report concluded that TSA “does not have valid evidence” that three-fourths of TSA’s behavior indicators employed by “thousands” of behavior detection officers over the past decade can actually identify passengers “who may post a threat to aviation security.”

In fact, 98% of the sources TSA cited to support its list of methods do not provide valid evidence, either, the GAO wrote.

The GAO began the study at the request of Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), who both sit on the House Homeland Security Committee.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Rep. Thompson had harsh words for the TSA.

“After pressing TSA for years to provide scientific justification for its billion dollar behavior detection program, it is ridiculous that TSA provided little more than news articles and opinion pieces,” Thompson said.

“It is clear, yet again, that Congress should cut funding for this troubled program, which is known more for racial and ethnic profiling than detecting terrorist activity.”

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TSA ‘Continually Working to Improve’

In information provided to The Voyage Report, the TSA acknowledged that “academic studies do not yet provide sufficient validation for certain behavioral detection techniques.”

But the agency said it is “continually working to improve” and that it uses “common sense indicators” and “real-world examples of success that TSA cannot reasonably ignore.”

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In a statement, Spokesman James Gregory said, “While we respect the opinions of our GAO colleagues, TSA remains steadfast in the effectiveness of behavior detection and committed to training our officers in these widely used techniques.”

TSA’s behavior detection capabilities are an important piece of our layered approach to deter, detect and identify adversaries looking to defeat security measures and attack our nation’s aviation system,” Gregory explained.

The TSA cites two examples of successes by its behavior detection patrols: one in 2008 in Orlando, when officers “observed a passenger behaving suspiciously” whose bags were later found to have TNT and parts that could have been used in a bomb; and a second incident in 2015 in McAllen, TX, when a passenger was stopped and screeners found more than four kilos of cocaine in her bags.

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Behavior Detection Patrols Reduced

TSA’s behavior detection officers seek to spot travelers who are showing signs of stress, fear, avoidance, or deception; examples cited include how a person swallows or how wide a person’s eyes are open.

The agency had claimed its methods were based on those used by defense and law enforcement.

But starting in 2013, the GAO found evidence “did not support” whether such methods could be used to identify passengers who may threaten aviation security and that “decades of peer-reviewed, published research” also didn’t support the basis for TSA’s behavior program.

The Department of Homeland Security disagreed with the GAO at the time.

Since then, the GAO noted, TSA has reduced officers dedicated to the patrols by 23.5%; funding has dropped by at least $35.4 million.

In the most current full fiscal year, the program cost $186 million and covered 87 airports.

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News & Opinion Articles as ‘Evidence’

The GAO report noted that of 178 sources the TSA cited for evidence as to the validity of its behavior detection methods, 76.9% came from “news or opinion sources” and were discarded from consideration by investigators because they did not meet the GAO’s definition of “valid evidence.”

Another 11.7% of the TSA’s evidence relied upon the opinion of an author reviewing various studies, leaving just 11.2% of the 178 sources as “original research.”

But GAO concluded that 98% of the sources were not acceptable and that “TSA does not have valid evidence that most of the indicators in its revised list of behavioral indicators can be used to identify individuals who may pose a threat to aviation security.”

Courtesy: TSA

The GAO issued no new recommendations, other than that the TSA “should continue to limit funding” for behavior detection patrols until the security agency finds valid evidence.

The report came out the same week the TSA announced a one-week record for the number of firearms seized at airport checkpoints: 89.

Eighty-three percent of them were loaded, the agency said.

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