US Homeland Security Lacks Progress on Biometric Airport Exit Technology

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is stymied in its efforts to develop a biometric exit system to ensure effective airport exit security, a report by Government Accountability Office (GAO) has revealed.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Earlier in January, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials told the GAO they were unable to estimate when the assessment on the biometric airport exit technology would be ready to be tested and deployed, the report concluded.

“The DHS faces long-standing challenges in developing a biometric exit system and reporting reliable overstay data,” the report, issued on Wednesday, said. “As of January 2016, DHS has planning efforts underway but has not yet met these statutory requirements.”

In May 2012, DHS internally reported recommendations to support planning for a biometric exit capability at airports. However, the department still has not yet fully addressed those recommendations, the GAO observed.

“GAO found that, without robust planning that includes time frames and milestones to develop and implement an evaluation framework, DHS lacked reasonable assurance that it would be able to provide an assessment to Congress as planned,” the report warned.