Investigators: TSA Wasting Money By Profiling Passengers’ Behavior

Government investigators said Wednesday that there is little evidence to show TSA employees are able to pick out potential terrorists by profiling behavior and that the agency may be wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on the 3,000 officers hired to do so.

The Government Accountability Office, which is Congress’ chief watchdog, said it has reviewed all of the major research and said, at best, the Transportation Security Administration’s behavior detection officers do only slightly better than random chance in singling out high-risk passengers.

The GAO recommended that TSA dramatically scale back the program until it can prove a real payoff.

“Until TSA can provide scientifically validated evidence demonstrating that behavioral indicators can be used to identify passengers who may pose a threat to aviation security, the agency risks funding activities that have not been determined to be effective,” the investigators said.

TSA began the program in 2007 and by 2012 had deployed about 3,000 behavior detection officers to 176 airports throughout the country. It costs about $200 million a year to maintain the program.

Read more at THE WASHINGTON TIMES.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}