TSA Security Gadgets End in Warehouses

The Transportation Security Administration has spent $8 billion on new and often unproven technologies since 9/11 including $30 million on puffer devices that ended up in warehouses, The Washington Post reports. The paper says that since its founding in 2001, TSA has spent $14 billion on more than 20,000 deals with contractors.

Former TSA head Kip Hawley told the Post that when new security technology comes along “the temptation is to run to deploy it before we fully understand how it integrates with the multiple layers we already have in place.”

The puffer devices, designed to detect explosive residue on clothing, turned out to be unreliable and expensive to operate. The Post said that 2009 Government Accountability Office report found 116 of them in storage.