TSA agents are busy trying to catch the latest threats from terrorism, but travelers often have a harder time avoiding them.
So TSA agents, along with airport workers, are getting smarter.
TSA agents can now identify travelers’ travel plans, and they can even tell you where they are going to go if you’re traveling alone.
But agents also can’t do much to help you prevent a terrorist attack.
TSA officials told Axios that agents are looking for ways to improve safety, but not all of the agency’s efforts have been as effective as it could be.
That’s because TSA agents do not have the training to identify and spot suspicious travelers.
“We need to invest in training, and we’re not investing in training,” an unnamed TSA official told Axia.
TSA wants to increase the number of agents in the field and hire more people, but its efforts haven’t made much progress, according to a study conducted by the Government Accountability Office in June.
In June, the TSA hired an additional 2,400 employees to help train employees on detecting suspicious travelers, but the agency still has about 3,000 agents working.
The GAO said the agency could train 3,300 TSA agents in October.
The agency also wants to improve how it alerts people about possible suspicious travel plans.
But the TSA’s top officials say the agency has no plans to increase its staff or hire more agents, but they do want to make the system more accurate.
“The way we look at it, we’re in a race against time,” the TSA official said.
The TSA needs to find a way to get the most out of the technology TSA is using to detect suspicious travelers and passengers, the GAO study found.
“TSA has a lot of data that they can’t get to,” the official said, adding that the agency needs to get more data from travelers.
A recent GAO report also found that TSA had been slow to improve its data-gathering capabilities, which makes it difficult to track how many suspicious travelers are identified and how often they are stopped and detained.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the government began using new technology to scan passengers’ electronic devices.
The scanners can capture fingerprints and other biometric data, which can be used to identify the passenger.
TSA now uses a technology called “a face scan” that is much more accurate and more effective than using fingerprints.
TSA also is using a new tool called a “sensor fusion” to match data with passenger records.
“As a result, TSA is working to improve our data collection and analysis capabilities and to better support our ability to detect and disrupt terrorist activities,” TSA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told Axi.
But even with all the new technology, TSA still has not found a way for agents to identify suspicious travelers more effectively, the report said.
TSA has found that agents cannot identify suspicious individuals, despite using technology that’s much more sensitive and accurate than fingerprints.
“These new technology capabilities, combined with the limitations inherent in the fingerprinting technology, have limited TSA’s ability to identify travelers who may pose a threat,” the GAA report said, noting that the technology can only be used by trained employees and that it doesn’t allow TSA agents to take a face scan.
The FAA, which oversees the Transportation Security Administration, has also been slow in finding a solution for detecting suspicious passengers.
FAA Administrator Deborah L. Hopper said in a statement to Axi that the TSA has taken several steps to address its issues, including hiring new employees and working with the Federal Aviation Administration and private contractors to improve their detection capabilities.
“But we know we need to take more aggressive action to improve TSA’s detection capabilities and our ability in the future to detect travelers who pose a risk,” Hopper told Axie.