Providing answers to the pop quiz before actually giving the quiz, defeats the purpose of testing, according to U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07).
Perlmutter, along with members of the House Homeland Security Committee, questioned the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administrator Kip Hawley today about leaks of covert testing operations to be conducted at some of the nation’s busiest airports.
An April 2006 email was sent from high level TSA’s Office of Security Operations warning about upcoming airport security tests in Charleston, SC and Jacksonville, FL. The email included details about testing techniques and descriptions of the testers.
“These secret tests are like pop quizzes,” said Perlmutter. “But, pop quizzes don’t measure skills or knowledge if you know what the answers are before the quiz.”
Passenger prescreening is critical to the security of our nation’s aviation system, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. TSA is responsible for screening all airline passengers. In order for the TSA to perform this function it must ensure that screeners are effectively trained and supervised, therefore covert testing is used to evaluate screeners on a regular basis. Covert testing is useful in detecting weaknesses in the screening procedure, as well as detecting threat objects. Screeners who fail the covert tests must undergo remedial training. Unfortunately, there have been several public instances where TSOs were tipped off to these tests.
The TSA conducted covert testing at Denver International Airport in the Spring of 2007, however, there is no evidence screeners were tipped off.
In earlier briefings from TSA officials, I’ve been told these tests are supposed to be secret in order to expose holes in our airport security screening,” said Perlmutter. “The tests are designed to be hard and difficult to pass so we can keep pushing the envelope and improving our security methods. However, by letting screeners in these airports know about the tests ahead of time in order to improve the pass rate, we are putting the public and travelers at a great risk by possibly missing something in the future. That is unacceptable.”
