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Government oversight has documented a real concern: advanced imaging may send transgender travelers, people wearing religious headwear, and passengers with disabilities to additional screening more often than other passengers. But public evidence does not quantify how often this happens nationwide, establish that every referral is wrong, or prove that airport screening overall is excessive. The problem is that agencies need to show that screening is effective, proportionate, and consistently applied—and measure who bears its extra burden.
Why do some people get pulled aside at airport security?
An alarm or referral can be an intended response to an anomaly; it is not, on its own, proof of discrimination or an incorrect alarm. The oversight question is whether the process detects threats reliably while avoiding needless referrals, and whether those referrals fall unevenly on particular groups.
In 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said officials at four selected airports and representatives of seven selected stakeholder organizations reported that advanced imaging technology may refer transgender passengers, people wearing religious headwear, and passengers with disabilities for additional screening more often than others. Those interviews identify a concern, not a nationwide rate or a completed finding of unequal treatment. GAO said the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had begun collecting referral data, including causes, and planned to assess it. GAO’s 2023 testimony does not publish group-specific referral rates.
That distinction matters: detecting a possible threat and deciding who is sent for more screening are related but separate questions. A system can meet a detection standard and still impose an uneven referral burden; a reported difference, in turn, needs investigation before it can establish why the difference occurred.
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Are airport screening technologies accurate?
Accuracy is not just whether a device works at the checkpoint where it is installed. Detection standards specify prohibited items, a minimum detection rate, and a maximum rate for incorrectly flagging an item. Certification before deployment and routine calibration help establish a baseline and operational readiness, but they do not demonstrate that a technology continues to meet requirements over time.
In testing of a sample of deployed explosives trace detection and bottled-liquid scanner units in 2015 and 2016, the Department of Homeland Security found that some no longer met detection requirements. This is evidence that post-deployment performance needs checking; it is not a current, system-wide failure rate. GAO reported that operationalizing the detection standards it reviewed took two to seven years, depending on manufacturers’ technical capabilities and other factors. GAO’s 2019 report explains the assurance gap and the need to verify continued performance.
What do oversight findings say about deployment and follow-up?
Placement decisions did not clearly show how risk shaped deployment
GAO found that TSA generally based screening-technology placement on logistical factors and did not sufficiently document how risk influenced where and in what order systems were deployed. TSA later said training, logistics, site readiness, and long-term operational efficiency often predominated. Its guidance called for airport-risk assessment but did not require officials to document those assessments.
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In an update posted in February 2026, TSA said operational factors continued to drive initial and subsequent deployment needs while risk was more constant, and that it would reassess its guidance. The issue is not that logistics should never matter; it is that a transparent record is needed to show how risk and operational constraints inform decisions. GAO wrote: “Moving forward, increased transparency about TSA’s decisions would better ensure that deployment of technologies matches potential risks.”
Post-deployment review is required, but oversight of implementation continues
TSA policy described by GAO requires post-implementation reviews, with periodic reviews planned every two to three years unless a justified change in frequency is approved. GAO has continued seeking adequate test plans and data for certain deployed systems. In its February 2026 update, TSA reported developing field test plans; GAO said it still planned to assess the results. A policy for reviews is an important step, but the public record described here does not establish that every deployed system has been shown to meet requirements throughout its service life.
How should screening be judged?
A credible assessment needs to examine both security performance and the burden the process creates. Useful measures include:
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- Threat detection: whether the technology meets the applicable detection requirements.
- Incorrect flags and referrals: how often equipment or procedures flag people or items incorrectly, and whether the measure is tracked after deployment.
- Equity and accessibility: referral rates, causes, and outcomes across relevant passenger groups, assessed against TSA’s non-discrimination policies.
- Risk allocation: whether deployment decisions reflect documented threat assessments as well as practical constraints.
- Evaluation quality: whether tests use adequate samples and sound methods, both for individual components and for the overall screening process.
These measures should be reported in a way that protects passenger privacy while allowing meaningful oversight. The public sources discussed here do not provide current nationwide rates for additional referrals, false alarms, or unnecessary screening, so they cannot establish the scale of the burden or support a precise comparison between groups.
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Does risk-based screening solve the problem?
Expedited, risk-based screening can be evaluated as an alternative to applying the same procedures to everyone, but it must be judged on both security and fairness—and tested as a complete process. GAO’s March 2015 account described TSA PreCheck eligibility at that time as including approved known-traveler lists and automated passenger risk assessments. It described Managed Inclusion as a layered process involving random selection, behavior-detection officers, and canine teams or explosives-trace detection.
GAO noted that TSA had tested individual layers but that concerns remained about their effectiveness and whether the combined process had been tested with a sound evaluation design. That account is historical context, not evidence of current procedures or current program effectiveness. It illustrates why evidence about one component cannot, by itself, show that the whole screening system works as intended. GAO’s 2015 testimony describes the program and evaluation concerns at that time.
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What can the public evidence establish?
The public record supports a measured conclusion: oversight officials have identified potential unequal additional referrals in advanced imaging and gaps in verifying that some screening technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployment. It does not establish the number of unnecessary screenings nationwide, a current false-alarm rate, or that aviation screening as a whole is excessive.
A stronger public account would pair privacy-protective referral data—by technology, cause, and passenger group—with post-deployment performance results and transparent documentation of risk-based deployment decisions. Those measures would let the public and oversight bodies assess whether screening is effective and whether its additional burdens are necessary and distributed fairly. As GAO put it, “TSA must continually assess if its screening operations are effective.”
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Sources
- GAO, Aviation Security: TSA Could Better Ensure Detection and Assess the Potential for Discrimination in Its Screening Technologies, October 19, 2023; recommendation updates include TSA’s February 2026 account.
- GAO, Aviation Security: TSA Should Ensure Screening Technologies Continue to Meet Detection Requirements after Deployment, December 5, 2019.
- GAO, Aviation Security: TSA’s PreCheck® Application and Managed Inclusion Processes, March 2015.
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