The Transportation Security Administration ”does not have a comprehensive oversight program in place to gather information about all security breaches and therefore cannot use the information to monitor trends or make general improvements to security,” an inspector general’s report released this morning concludes. “As a result, it does not have a complete understanding of breaches occurring at the Nation’s airports and misses opportunities to strengthen aviation security.”

The investigation into airport security breaches by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General was prompted by a U.S. senator’s queries about a series of incidents at Newark International Airport in 2010 and 2011. 

The inspector general examined breaches at Newark and five other airports. The report masked out the names of those airports, as well as the exact number of breaches examined. 

“Our analysis showed that TSA at Newark has taken corrective actions to address the incidents identified by Senator Lautenberg, but took corrective actions for only 42% of the security breaches shown in its records,” the report says.

The investigation found that when TSA knew of breaches, it didn’t always take followup action or document it.  ”During our review, we identified documentation of corrective actions for only (53%) of the breaches we reviewed.” The percent of cases with corrective action ranged from 42% (Newark) to 88% at the airports studied.

The report recommended that TSA:

• Develop a comprehensive oversight  program.
• Refine and use one comprehensive definition of what constitutes a security breach that can be universally reported.