TSA Did Not Assess Its Explosives Detection Canine Team Program for Surface Transportation Security

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) partially complied with the Act by establishing operational processes for routine activities within its Explosives Detection Canine Team (EDCT) program for surface transportation. Specifically, TSA has a national training program for canines and handlers, uses canine assets to meet urgent security needs, and monitors and tracks canine assets. However, TSA did not comply with the Act’s requirements to evaluate the entire EDCT program for alignment with its risk-based security strategy or develop a unified deployment strategy for its EDCTs for surface transportation. We recommended that TSA coordinate with its law enforcement agency partners to conduct an evaluation of the EDCT program and develop an agency-wide deployment strategy for surface transportation consistent with TSA's Surface Transportation Risk-Based Security Strategy. TSA concurred with both recommendations.