Whistleblower: U.S. airports becoming unsafe as TSA relaxes security measures
A whistleblower with the Transportation Security Administration is sounding the alarm about loosened security at U.S. airports, charging that top TSA officials have prioritized speed over security by reducing the sensitivity of metal detectors, disabling technology on some X-ray machines, issuing orders to keep the baggage conveyor belts moving in certain circumstances and ordering policy changes that result in fewer pat-downs.
Jay Brainard, the highest-ranking TSA official in Kansas, has notified the highest reaches of the TSA as well as outside federal regulatory bodies about the matter, but says little is being done. He believes the relaxed security rules that have occurred over the past couple of years are putting passengers at risk.
“My biggest fear is having something happen that costs American lives, and I didn’t step up and put a stop to it,” Brainard told CNN this week. “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. We are long overdue for an attack.”
In a prior complaint, he spurred the TSA into action by revealing that officers hadn’t been adequately tested for colorblindness. This poses a security problem because X-ray operators need to be able to differentiate between colors to spot potential explosives in bags. As a result of Brainard’s 2017 complaint, the TSA is re-testing its employees for “color vision,” but the process isn’t slated for completion until the end of 2020.
Brainard’s complaints come as airports are experiencing record-breaking numbers of travelers. On Dec. 1, the TSA screened more than 2.8 million passengers, making it the busiest day in the agency’s history, according to Airlines for America, an industry trade organization and lobbying group for major airlines. TSA estimates that 42 million passengers will stream through the checkpoints at airports between Thursday and Jan. 5, an increase of 3.9% from the same period a year ago, the organization said.
Meanwhile, officials at the TSA, which was founded in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, acknowledge that airports remain a target. David Pekoske, the head of the TSA, said in response to the whistleblower’s allegations that his agency is not putting wait times ahead of security.
“If you go back and you look at my testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee — my confirmation — so back in June of 2017, one of the first things I said is that security is the most important thing for TSA,”he said. “And that throughput is secondary to our process.”