The Transportation Security Administration agents recently failed 67 out of 70 total tests, missing 95 percent of the of mock explosives and weapons that were smuggled into airports by undercover Homeland Security Red Teams, ABC News Reported.

Since the administration’s last review in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security spent $540 million on checked baggage screening and $11 million to train Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents. Despite these expenditures, ABC news notes that the TSA has “failed to make any noticeable improvements in that time.” Professors John Mueller and Mark Stewart further reviewed homeland security expenditures using a cost-benefit analysis. They conclude, based on the costs of security and the financial damages of potential attacks, American spending has not produced the necessary results.

The failed airport security tests come at the worst possible time for the TSA. In the past couple months, we have witnessed multiple breaches in airport security. In April, a teenager snuck into a wheel well on an airplane leaving from the West Coast and flew all the way to Hawaii. In late May, a man was able to bypass airport security at LAX, only to be subdued by a TSA officer with a taser as he reached gate 66.

Last August, a woman was able to board a plane in San Jose without a ticket. The woman made it all the way to her destination before being arrested by police, who later determined that the she suffered from a mental illness.

After news of the recent Red Team tests emerged, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said,

Changes will be made in response to the identification of the vulnerable aspects by these tests.

According to the ABC News report, one undercover agent was actually stopped after setting off the alarm at the magnetometer, but after a pat down, TSA agents failed to find fake explosives taped to the undercover agent’s back.

The question now becomes, what new security measures will be enacted by the TSA, and will these new measures be any more effective?  The TSA recently started testing electronic devices traveling to and from overseas cities at many U.S. airports with direct international flights. The new rule will require passengers to power on their devices when arriving at security checkpoints for overseas flights. If the device will not power on, it will not be allowed past airport security checkpoints.

Many passengers feel this does not adequately address all the security concerns as it is only being implemented in select airports and does not address the problem of passengers smuggling bombs and weapons on their bodies, which TSA agents failed to detect in the mock testing. In 2014, the TSA  confiscated 2,212 firearms at 24 airports after screening nearly 653 million passengers, a 22 percent increase from 2013 where only 1,813 firearms were confiscated.

With external security threats remaining high according to terrorism experts, it is imperative to keep internal security at its best. Homeland Security has used Red Teams for the last 13 years to detect security flaws; however, the changes never seem to address the problems accurately. NBC News notes that since 2002, TSA agents failed similar Red Team tests on several occasions, indicating that there are many existing security flaws yet to be addressed.

NBC recently learned that 270 TSA security badges went missing at the San Diego International Airport over the last two years. These missing badges would allow non-Homeland Security personnel to gain access to restricted locations within the airport. As of March 2015, the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta saw more than 1,400 badges go missing over a similar time period.

How are we supposed to trust TSA agents with our lives when they can not be trusted with their own badges? Unless the TSA is able to completely restructure the airport security system, it is unlikely that new changes will make a large enough difference to deal with existing security threats.

Jennie Burger

Jennie Burger is a member of the University of Oklahoma Class of 2016 and a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer of 2015. Contact Jennie at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Does the TSA Really Keep You Safe? appeared first on Law Street.

If you’re like me flying can be kind of scary. Yes, I am well aware of the fact that I am significantly more likely to die in a car accident than in a horrific plane crash. Unfortunately that morbid statistic does nothing to quell my intense phobia of heights combined with a general distaste for spaces that I can’t escape. It makes me nervous, playing with my hands and fidgeting more than unusual. According to The Intercept, I should stop doing all of these things because they are all quirks that TSA agents look for and classify as suspicious behavior via a designated point system detailed in a newly acquired TSA document.

This checklist is part of a controversial TSA program to identify potential terrorists based on behaviors that “indicate stress or deception.” The program is known as the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT. SPOT is operated by trained individuals known as ‘Behavior Detection Officers’ who observe and interact with passengers during screenings.

Nerves aren’t the only thing that can apparently make someone look suspicious to a TSA behavior agent. In the “Spot Referral Report,” a number of behaviors are divided into two categories: one point for “stress” factors and two points for “fear” factors.

Here are a few signs that TSA thinks might make you a terrorist:

• Exaggerated yawning
• Excessive throat clearing
• Widely open staring eyes
• Wearing improper attire for location
• Gazing down
• Exaggerated or repetitive grooming gestures
• Face pale from recent shaving of beard
• Rubbing or wringing of hands
• Arriving late for a flight
• Bulging adams apple

Now some of the behaviors listed make sense–like bulges under clothes–but others like excessive yawning and arriving late for a flight are hardly out of the ordinary or threatening for that matter. There were also some that are just outright weird, i.e. “bulging adams apples.” Why?

Apparently this document was not classified, but rather closely guarded by the TSA. The Intercept only received a copy after a concerned source questioned the quality of the program.

I can understand why. Behavioral science has been critiqued as not being an actual science, and therefore unreliable. According to the article, the Government Accountability Office found that there was no evidence to support the idea that “behavioral indicators” can be used to determine if someone is a threat to aviation. GAO concluded that:

The human ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance.

According to The Intercept, the ACLU sued TSA last week to obtain records related to its behavior detection programs, alleging that they lead to racial profiling. They could have a point. Using a checklist that makes almost any passenger susceptible to suspicion has the potential to be used as a catchall to interrogate or search any individual who is supposedly threatening. When racial stereotypes begin to come into play it is only a recipe for disaster. While airport security is a serious concern for Americans, programs like SPOT that depend solely on contrived behavioral factors is hardly reliable. In the mean time I’ll be mindful to keep my nerves to a minimum while going through airport security.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post TSA Has Secret Checklist to Spot Terrorists. Hint: Don’t Yawn at Security appeared first on Law Street.