Ten percent solution: TSA reforms stall at the gate.

• Author: Sanchez, Julian
• Position: Citings - Transportation Security Administration - Brief Article

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to launch its Secure Flight passenger profiling system this summer. The agency's latest attempt to identify potentially dangerous travelers before they board planes, Secure Flight is a descendant of the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) and its stillborn successor, CAPPS II, which was abandoned in the wake of criticisms that it would be both intrusive and ineffective.

Unfortunately, Secure Flight may suffer from similar problems. Congress established 10 criteria to ensure the program would both be effective and protect traveler privacy. A March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the TSA has met only one of those 10 benchmarks.

According to the report, the TSA has managed to establish an internal oversight board, but it has not finished establishing safeguards against abuse, creating a...